Another Shot to Prove Yourself
by Alice W. Rabbit
Summary: Tiny just wants to fit in, but when even her own parents turn on her, will her only hope of surviving Dragon Training be Baggie, Berk's craziest resident? A little Snotlout/OC.  Last Chapter is up!
1. Chapter 1

I know I know, I'm not done with the others. But I just had a brain-baby and had to type this all up! Reviews appreciated!!!

Prelude

Life in Berk is fine, if it's the kind of town you like. Sure, it's freezing cold nine months of the year, but you grow thicker skin and get used to it. Sure, the whole town has the unpleasant stench of fish and B.O, but you just plug your nose and get used to that too. Even the near-nightly cattle raids by the blood-thirsty dragons aren't so bad, as long as you know how to handle them. Maybe your house get's burned down one night, but you just rebuild it. Your baby got carried away by a Deadly Nadar, you say? Have another! No, all of that is bearable. At least the way you deal with all of that stuff makes sense. What makes Berk such a cruddy place to live are the people. They smell (bad), they swear (a lot), they all eat like pigs and they defiantly don't bathe on a regular basis (don't believe me? Go sniff one. When your nose crumbles up and falls off, then we'll talk). And worst of all, they're all dragon-slaying Vikings.

Don't get me wrong, I hate the dragons. Last year, they carried off my favorite goat, and just the other night, a horde of them depleted nearly half of the village's sheep stock. Dragons are nasty nuisances with a mean streak, and Berk would be a lot better place without them. It's not the dragon-killing that really gets me; it's the general attitude of the Vikings. Or rather, of the Vikings MY age.

And that brings me to the introduction. You are talking to the weirdest, smallest, skinniest Viking you've probably ever seen. That's right, out of everyone in Berk, I'm the only person on the entire Island under 5 foot 5. The name's Thauktin. Thauktin Rutharia. That's Thauktin, as in the Norse word for 'Giant'. I know, it's hard to remember. But don't worry; you can just call me Tiny. Most people around here do.

You see, when my mother had me, I was born a pretty big baby. My Dad swears I reached his knee by the time I could walk, and by the time I was talking, he says I could grab hold of his beard. Well, if that's true, then I haven't grown since, because my Dad is now a whole two and a half heads taller than me. He's pretty tall, though, so you would think the people my age would be around my height. Well, you'd be wrong. The average height of a Viking teenager is about 5 foot 8 for girls (I'm 5 inches shorter than that) and 5 foot 10 for boys. Where does that put me? At the end of the dinner line, at a table by myself, hiding out in the cattle pastures with the sheep.

Besides my freakishly short stature, I've got the muddiest eyes you've ever seen. I've seen brown eyes before, and believe me, my eyes are NOT chocolate brown, NOT earth brown and not even bark brown. They're mud brown, plain and simple. Let's see, pointy nose, check. Small ears, check. Frizzy hair the color of dirt, check. Add all that up and you've got the perfect recipe for a grade-A Viking loser. And there hasn't been a day that the others have let me forget it.

It's not really my fault my arms are too skinny to raise an Axe, or that my legs are too short to jump over things. If you want to blame someone, blame my great Aunt Tessie. My mom always said I took after her, though I've never seen her. Maybe she had just as bad a time fitting in as me? I hope so, it's her fault I got pushed in the mud this morning.

But enough about me. Let me tell you a bit about my tormentors. First and foremost, there are the Thorston twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut. Identical in almost every way, except for the itty bitty fact that Ruffnut's a girl and Tuffnut's not. Twice the brain power, twice the trouble. (Although it goes without saying, even with two heads, they still can't outwit me in anything.) They're mostly in charge of any sort of physical bullying; pushing, tripping, shoving, punching, ect ect. Not the smartest of Vikings, but some of the more ruthless. Next is Snotlout Jorgenson. A big block of a boy, with a nasty temper and an even nastier case of tooth decay. He's wittier than the twins, and has taken it upon himself to come up with most of the names the others call me. Some of his favorites are, of course, Tiny, Shrinkydink, dirt bag, mud face, crow nose, and a few others I'm not comfortable repeating. Most are harmless, some annoying, some down-right hurtful, and a few make little sense, but he comes up with a new name every day. It's almost impressive; I would have run out of ideas by now.

Thirdly, we have Astrid Hofferson. Berks' perfect Viking. Smart, serious, dutiful and pretty to boot, she's the object of every young male Viking's affections and the source of constant ridicule for me. Astrid's clever, and never comes right out and says anything; rather, she sneaks them in to otherwise harmless conversation. An example would be what she said just the other night at dinner. As usual, I sat alone, and Astrid casually pointed to me while speaking to Tuffnut and said "Why don't you chase after her? At least you and she have equally low attraction levels." See what I mean? She snuck an insult about me into an insult about him. I don't like Astrid, but I have to respect that sort of devious cleverness.

There are only two other Vikings in Berk around my age: Fishlegs and Hiccup. I'll start with Fishlegs. Fishlegs is a rather large boy with blonde hair and beady eyes. He's, well, sort of a dork. I can't say anything, I'm more of a dork than he'll ever be, but you can't deny his social awkwardness. He doesn't seem to know if he fits in with the others or not, and he just floats awkwardly around them most of the time. The others don't seem to care either way; they don't hate him at least. Fishlegs is nice, but doesn't usually talk to me. I suspect it's because he never sees me; he's very tall.

Lastly, we have Hiccup. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, son of the Chief: Stoick the Vast. With a name like that, you'd expect a tall, handsome dragon-fighting machine, right? You're wrong again. Hiccup is the opposite of all that; he's short (for a boy, tall for me), gangly and baby-faced, and couldn't kill a dragon if one came up and had a heart attack under a knife. He's not what you'd expect of the Chief's son, and definantly not your typical Viking youth. In fact, you might say Hiccup gets the same terrible treatment as I do. He doesn't have any friends, can't fight dragons, is awkwardly skinny for a Viking, ect. With all I've told you, it would seem like me and Hiccup would be perfect friends. But, there's a big difference between me and him. Hiccup's dad set up a system a while back, where Hiccup would learn from Gobber the Belch the art of Blacksmithing, so Hiccup wouldn't grow up not knowing how to do anything. What that means is; Hiccup has somewhere to belong. I don't. While he's an outcast and a screw up in Berk, at least he's able to do something useful. I can't do anything. Hiccup never gets called useless, or worthless, or dead-weight, and that sets us in totally different classes. According to the rules of Viking popularity, I'm not even supposed to TALK to Hiccup.

And that just about brings us to today. Just your average day in Berk. Wake up, see the usual faces of my tormentors, and go back to sleep. Or so I thought. Little did I know that today would be the day everything changed for me. Today would be the day my life turned upside down.

Chapter One: A Crashing Failure

"Tiny! Come out and play Tiny!" Tuffnut shouted at the empty second story window, cupping his hands around his mouth. "Can't hide in there forever!"

"We knew you were skinny, but a chicken? C'mon, we don't bite…much!" Tuffnut's twin sister stood beside him, arms folded across her chest, shouting in a similar manner. This was their morning routine: hike up to Thauktin "Tiny" Rutharia's house on the hill, shout at her window until she came out, then proceed to harass her until they grew bored and went off to do something else. It was their unspoken duty in Berk; all their friends' had one. They ruffed Tiny up a bit, Snotlout thought up clever names to call her, Astrid would passive-aggressively insult her, and then their day would be through. Day in and day out, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week; never ceasing.

Tiny stood on the other side of her wooden front door, mentally preparing herself for what lay on the outside. She knew the twins were waiting for her, but she couldn't tell if the others were there. Snotlout was usually pretty quiet, and Astrid didn't make any noise, ever. There was almost no way of telling without opening the door to look herself.

Tiny didn't know why they picked on her. Well, she did know WHY, but it wasn't a good reason. She was short and skinny, sure, but so was Astrid. Why was Astrid excluded from the name calling? Thauktin knew the answer to that one, too, but she hated to admit it. She hated that Astrid was so much prettier than her, so much more popular. She just hated Astrid.

"Hey Tiny! You home? C'mon, short-stuff, you're not really scared, are you?" Tiny exhaled deeply as Tuffnut hurled another insult at her house. Every word out of his mouth seemed to be malicious; it was like a tiny invisible arrow stabbed her very time that wretched boy opened his pie-hole. She couldn't do anything about it though, so, knowing she'd have to leave her house sometime today, Tiny opened her front door.

"YAAHHR!" Both twins came barreling through the open door, crashing into Tiny and knocking her backwards, into her front room. All three went flying to the ground, and all three hit the floor with a large and very audible 'THUNK!' It wasn't for a few moments after the impact that it registered in Tiny's mind what had happened, and another few moments for her to gather her bearings and stand back up. The twins tumbled off of her and landed in a big knot of long arms and blonde hair.

Tiny, not wanting to be followed, and not really caring if the twins were in her house, abruptly turned on her heel and dashed out her door again. She was eager to get down to the docks that morning, to say her farewells to her parents as they left on a voyage to, once again, hunt for the dragon's nest. No Viking had ever found it, but Stoick was convinced he knew where it was this time, and both Tiny's Mom and Dad had volunteered to go. She wanted to say goodbye to them without being embarrassed y her usual bullies.

"Wait, where are you-"Tiny was too far away to hear the last part when Tuffnut stuck his ugly head out the door to yell after her. One good thing about being small; you could run faster than any of the other Vikings. Running was the only think Tiny was good at, and she loved the terribly angry face of Astrid made whenever she was able to escape Tuffnut and Ruffnut.

Berk isn't a big Village, and it only took Tiny a few minutes to run across town to the docks. The boats were impossible to miss, not unlike the stink of forty Viking men and thirty Viking women all gathered in one spot. Tiny had to shove and elbow her way through the thick crowd, and even then she got stepped on a few times. Her parents' heads could be seen bobbing up and down at the front of the crowd, but no matter how fast she travelled towards them, they always seemed to get farther and farther away, and Tiny was afraid she wouldn't be able to see them before they left. She wasn't scared that she wouldn't see them ever again, (they'd been on a hundred of these stupid search missions) but, her parents were really the only people in Berk that cared about her, and she didn't want them to go without seeing her first.

"Mom! Mom! Dad, wait up!" Finally, Tiny was able to push her way to the front of the crowd where her parents stood, and by that time she was severely out of breath. Dodging gigantic feet and deadly hammers clutched in the hands of careless Vikings really worked up a sweat! "I-I'm glad I caught you guys! You didn't wake me up this morning!"

Tiny and her mother had always been very close, despite the fact that her mother, Hermilda, had stuck her with such a wretchedly cruel name. Ever since she was little, Tiny and her mother had done everything together. That's why it was such a big surprise when Hermilda turned to her daughter with frustration and anger in her eyes.

"Thauktin! What in Thor's name are you doing here!? Why didn't you stay home!?" Tiny almost fell backwards at the amount of venom her mother had pumped into those few words, and her mouth hung open a little.

"Dear, calm down." Freid grunted at his wife. Tiny's father was busy packing weapons onto the ship, and couldn't be bothered to look up to see what his wife was spitting about.

"We didn't wake you for a reason! And now look at you! Going to ruin everything. I don't see why she can't just come with us, it'd be easier and it would keep her out of - er, trouble."

At this, Freid straightened up and stared at his daughter. Tiny could almost feel herself shrinking under her father's intense gaze, and didn't dare move until his eyes shifted to Hermilda. "Don't be stupid. She's far too young and…fragile, for this voyage. But," He started tugging on his beard, which was always a bad sign with Rutharia men. "I see what you mean, Hermilda. Since she obviously won't stay out of 'trouble' on her own. We don't have much time before we shove off, but…I'll see what I can do." Freid set down the enormous axe he'd been carrying, setting it down like one might set down a baby, and, taking hold of Tiny's upper arm, dragged her back through the crowd.

Not many adults were staying behind in Berk, most were going on the search mission, but that didn't stop Freid from asking every-other person he knew if they were leaving or not. It seemed like only those with small children were staying, aside from the village elder and Gobber the Belch. Tiny didn't quite understand why her father was being so hard headed about finding someone for her to stay with while he was gone, but she knew he was trying to hide something from her.

"Why, yes, I could use a helping hand around Berk while you youngin's go off fightin' dragons and whatnot," Tiny was finally placed with Baggie, a very old and VERY senile woman. She wasn't the oldest person in Berk, but she was definantly the craziest. "Set 'er down in here and I'll set her to work weaving the yarn."

"Make sure she doesn't get inter any trouble. See to it that she doesn't leave unless absolutely necessary. And, one other thing…" Freid leaned in to whisper something in the woman's ear, which Tiny couldn't hear, and, with a swift pat on the back (which to Tiny was more like a shove into the ground) he left.

Baggie lived on the outskirts of the village, in a small, dusty cottage. The whole house had a damp, murky smell to it, and Tiny was almost certain there was a terrible terror living under the floorboards. Baggie didn't come away from the main window until Freid was out of sight, and only then did she clap her hands and spin to face Tiny.

"I see your father doesn't want to let you join in the games, hmm?" She croaked, raising one crusty old eyebrow. "I can see why, you are a bit scrawny. Well, you'll grow, I'm sure." Tiny stood in the middle of the front room, not quite knowing what to do next. Baggie stood opposite her, just staring, for quite some time more, and Tiny was beginning to feel awkward. A dazed smile was transfixed on her face, and her wooden eye swung loosely around in her right eye socket.

Tiny finally broke the silence a few minutes after she had heard the shouting that had signaled the departure of the ships down at the docks. "So, I guess I should get started with that weaving…" She started towards the loom that sat in the far corner of Baggie's house, but her hands were swatted away.

"I can do the weaving just fine myself!" Baggie snapped, the eerie smile never leaving her face.

"Well, then, why'd you tell my dad that I'd be doing the weaving, if you don't want me doing the weaving?"

"My dear," Baggie gripped Tiny's shoulder with her left hand and squeezed. "You don't think I'm that much of a kill joy? I can see straight through your father with this eye," She pointed to her wooden eye and grinned. Tiny doubted Baggie could see anything out of that eye, but was silent. "And I know that he doesn't want you in Dragon Training with the other kids. And so, that's why I'M lettin' ya go."

Tiny was shocked, to say the least. She hadn't even known that dragon training would be being held while all the adults were away! So that's why her mother hadn't wanted her to leave the house. They had wanted Tiny to stay away from dragon training, because they didn't think she could handle it!

"I can't believe them! They were going to keep me from becoming a dragon slayer!"

"Well honey, quite honestly, that's not all that's going to keep you from slaying dragons." Baggie chuckled. Great. Now even the senile old woman didn't believe in her. "But, I think you've got a good head on those shoulders dear. I've heard all about you, reading the Manuel three times through. You have the heart of a dragon slayer, just born into the wrong body. I think you deserve the same chance as all those other brats. So," the old woman shuffled over to the window and opened it up. "That's why I want you to go to dragon training! Go on, now, shoo!" She gestured outside to Tiny, who, reluctantly, climbed through the window. She felt rather silly, because the door was right there, but, she didn't want to pinch herself while dreaming, and took what she could get.

She sprinted across town for the second time that morning, but this time in the opposite direction as before. The training area loomed up ahead, on the cliff above her house, and her future, which was certainly going to be interesting from this moment on.


	2. Chapter 2: First Day of Training

Chapter Two

The training arena looked a lot like a bird cage, in Tiny's opinion. It was basically a big hole in the ground with a big iron cage over the top, to keep the dragons in. When Tiny had finally climbed up the cliff to the entrance of the arena, the other Vikings had already gathered, waiting for Gobber to open the gate to let them in.

Snotlout and Astrid stood in the front, Astrid seemingly staring off into space, Snotlout gesturing to her and making some suggestive comment, no doubt. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were scrabbling in the dirt just behind them. They were yelling loudly, but not words. Just noises and Tiny didn't think they had any reason to be fighting, except for the sake of not getting along with each other.

Fishlegs and Hiccup stood off to the side, not saying anything; just surveying the scene. It didn't really look like they were doing nothing together, but rather, doing nothing alone, but close by one another. Tiny knew this stance well: The friendless friends. They only acted civil to one another through their mutual friendlessness. Tiny did it a lot herself.

Every head whipped around as she approached, and Tiny would have liked nothing better than to curl up into a ball and roll all the way down the hill, back to Baggie's house. She didn't though; because she was afraid Baggie might whip out her knitting needles and brandish them on her for being a coward. Instead, she cracked a crooked smile and stood up straight, trying to make herself look taller.

"Okay, who told Tiny we were having Dragon Training?" Tuffnut called out, glaring suspiciously at everyone from his place, pinned in the dirt by his sister. Tiny shrunk back down.

"Don't look at me." Astrid shrugged, looking genuinely disconcerned with the situation. Tiny figured that Astrid thought she would be eaten by a Nightmare anyway. Hiccup's eyes darted back and forth, and his posture was a little hunched over, as if he was afraid the ridicule would turn back to him at any moment.

"Look, kid," Snotlout shouldered his way through everyone until he stood menacingly over Tiny. "This isn't some game. This is REAL dragon training, for REAL Vikings. If you think anyone cares if you get killed out here-"and then Tiny just snapped.

Her fist flew forward, and connected with Snotlout's chest, audibly knocking the air out of him and sending him stumbling backwards, where he tripped over the twins, still sprawled in the dirt, and came down to the ground with a loud crash. Tiny's hands flew up to her mouth, smothering a gasp, and she took a few steps back. Nothing happened for a few moments, until Astrid's eyes came up to meet hers.

"Jeez, Snotlout must be weaker than we thought." She mumbled, shaking her blonde head of hair. There she went again, sneaking in one of her little insults.

"I-oof! I am NOT weak!" Snotlout began trying to untangle himself from the twins, but ended up falling back down again. "She…she caught me off guard! I wouldn't of even flinched if I'd known she'd of punched me like that!"

"And that," All eyes shot up above Tiny's head. Gobber the Belch, their trainer, stood just behind Tiny, his hand and hook coming together in a soundless clap. "Was lesson number one, rug rats. A dragon will never tell you what it will do next. They're completely unpredictable. So," He placed his giant hand on Tiny's head. Her knees almost buckled under the weight. "Never put your guard down." He punctuated each word with a short pause, and he glared down at Snotlout, who chuckled nervously and shrank back. "Glad you could make it, Lassie. Freid let ya come after all, eh?" He peered down at Tiny, who was eclipsed by his giant palm.

"Er, yeah. Sure." She didn't want to say anything that would make Gobber send her back to Baggies.

"Right then. What 'er we waitin' fer? Let's get started." Gobber strode forward and with one arm, jerked the giant Iron Gate up to let everyone into the arena. They all filed in, each with a different expression of nervousness, as Gobber limped over to a big wooden door in the side of the arena. A furious racket was being made behind the door, followed by an ear-splitting roar. Everyone flinched.

"So, who can tell me what's behind this door?" He asked, knocking once on the wood with his hook hand.

Fishlegs' hand shot right into the air. "A Gronkle, sir! You can tell by the low doorframe and the reinforced metal bolts!"

"Right you are. Do yeh know the best defense against a Gronkle?"

Fishlegs stuttered for a Moment, and then went silent. Nobody knew, but Tiny had a pretty good idea.

"An axe?" Tuffnut guessed, smiling his cocky grin and shrugging.

"WRONG!" Gobber trudged over to the line of youngsters and stabbed his hook at Tuffnut. "Yeh may think it now, but an Axe is never the best defense against any dragon!" He stared at Tuffnut and pointed over at a pile of shields by the door. "When fighting dragons and allowed EITHER an axe OR a shield, ALWAYS pick the shield."

Tiny peeked over her shoulder at the pile of shields, and inwardly gulped. Every single one of them was huge and thick and heavy-looking, and she had an awful feeling they'd have to use one today.

"Now, we'll begin lesson two." Gobber hobbled back over to the door and pulled the bold out. There was a collective gasp as he started to set the dragon behind the doors free.

"Wait, a-aren't you going to teach us how to fight that thing!?" Snotlout stuttered, taking a giant leap back.

"I believe in learning on the job." Gobber smiled as the doors swung open and a huge green dragon barreled out. The Gronkle was old and tough and battle-scarred, and didn't look all that friendly. It made a bee-line straight for the twins, who were now fighting over a shield.

"Grab a shield; it's the only way to defend yerselves!" Gobber shouted, and trotted off to the edge of the ring. Tiny was rooted to the spot, not wanting to get a shield when the Gronkle was hovering right above them. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Hiccup and Astrid circling the arena to the other side, and Fishlegs was just running around blindly. Snotlout was still, too, but more of a stupor than a calculating stand-still.

"Watch out fer the-"BOOM! Gobber's directions were interrupted by a terrific blast of fire as the dragon started blasting towards his prospective prey. Fishlegs was able to just nearly dodge it, but the ends of his fur vest were pretty badly singed. "-Fireballs. Watch out for the fireballs. Keep alert; every dragon has a shot limit, a certain amount of shots it can take atcha 'fore it can't shoot anymore! What's a Gronkle's shot limit?"

"Five!?" Astrid guessed, jumping out of the way of another fireball.

"Six! It's six!" Fishlegs shouted again.

"Right you are! It's only got four shots left make sure you dodge 'em all!" Gobber waved with his hook-hand at Hiccup, who was trying to sink into the arena wall, it seemed. As if they needed to be told that.

As soon as the Gronkle's attention was diverted, Tiny made a grab at the nearest shield, but when she tried to pull it up, it wouldn't budge. It was a pretty small shield, but Tiny's arms weren't strong enough to move it.

"C'mon! Jeez, why are you so heavy?" She cried at the shield, and was dismayed to hear malicious snickering behind her. She didn't dare take her eyes off the dragon to see who was laughing, but she was fairly certain it was either Tuffnut or Ruffnut. The dragon wasn't a big problem at the moment, though; its next target was Hiccup, who was running around like an idiot. It was almost amusing to watch, until the fact that he was running for his life hit you. Tiny only allotted a single moment to watch the boy, and then set in on trying to drag the shield away with her.

"Need some help there, Shrinkydink?" Tuffnut called from his hiding spot behind a rack of weapons. A big, toothy grin stretched unpleasantly across his face, while Tiny's face crumbled. Snotlout's eye peeped over the top of the rack, darting from her to the dragon and back. Tiny hated to admit it, but…maybe they were right. Maybe she really COULDN'T do this. Her father hadn't been trying to crush her dreams; he'd just wanted her to stay alive. Maybe dragon slaying really WAS too hard for her.

"Rutharia, look alive!" Gobber shouted, breaking into her anguished trance. She turned to look at him, and realized too late what he'd been trying to warn her about. The Gronkle had seen her, standing in the middle of the arena, a sitting duck, and was now speeding at her at full force. It was then that Tiny knew she was done for. They'd ship her body back to Baggie's house, and the crazy old Broad would probably boil her up as soup. All that would be left would be bones! When she could see the whites of its beady, evil eyes; all she could think to do was throw her hands up in a feeble attempt to protect herself. Her right arm swung forward as she squeezed her eyes shut, and connected accidentally with the Gronkle's lower jaw.

As soon as her skin touched his scales, she figured it would bounce right back, but, Tiny had used a bit too much force when swinging her arms up, and her fist kept travelling up, knocking the dragon's open mouth out of the path of her head.

There was a small shocked pause as everyone, including Tiny herself, realized what she'd just done. Thauktin Rutharia, the smallest and wimpiest of all the Vikings in Berk, the only person that couldn't even lift a wooden shield, had just punched a dragon out of the way. Even the dragon seemed to be shocked. Tiny's mouth hung open, and her arm hung down loosely; her shoulder was throbbing and her fingers felt broken and bruised.

The small moment of peace ended as soon as the Gronkle lumbered off towards the weapon rack; it had seen the two identical heads of the twins poking out from over it as they gawked at Tiny. Tiny skittered backwards until she hit the wall of the arena, and slid down to the dirt floor. She clutched her right arm gingerly, and just stared with wide eyes as the other trainees ran around frantically. The Gronkle didn't make any more advances at her, weather it was afraid to or if it just didn't notice her, she didn't know, but she was grateful none the less. The Gronkle used up three more of its shots in the next fifteen minutes, and was just about to use its last to finish Hiccup off, Gobber swooped down and jerked it's mouth away, causing it to miss its intended target. Hiccup was hunched on the ground, shielding his head with his hands while Gobber dragged the Gronkle back to its 'room'.

"Don't ever back down with a dragon. A dragon always goes for the kill-shot." Gobber said gravely.

The first to approach Tiny was Fishlegs. His eyes were wide and terrified, with a small glimmer of excitement in them.

"How did you…you punched it, right?" he asked excitedly, smiling slightly.

"Um, well, I-I guess," Tiny stuttered, fiddling with the end of her braid.

"I probably weakened it up for her." Tiny's eyes narrowed as Astrid strode past them, flipping her perfect blonde hair around her perfect blonde head and batting her perfect blue eyes. She was perfectly revolting. "That thing's so old, even Baggie could punch it down. She'd stand no chance against WILD dragons." Astrid's eyes locked with Tiny's', and both girls held the stare for quite some time. The twins and Snotlout circled them, followed by a weary and beaten looking Hiccup. No one said a word as they stood, and were only broken apart when Gobber insisted on taking a look at Tiny's injured arm.

Gobber led tiny away, up to the stand above the arena while the others went to their respective homes. They sat down and Gobber tried his best to assess the damage, but he was only making it worse.

"How on Earth did you do that?" He finally said, shaking his head incredulously. "I was about to jump in an' save ya, when POW! Ya knocked 'em one good! Y'know, I've never seen such a…a small Viking deflect a full grown Gronkle, by themselves before." He gingerly extended her arm, to which she winced and he immediately let go. "Though, looks like it took some toll on tha' arm o'yours. I'm no doctor; s'ya should probably get Baggie to take a look at it. And," He lowered his voice a bit (however unnecessary it was; the others were long gone) "If ya want ter take a few days off o'trainin', no one would think bad o'ya."

"No!" Tiny squeaked, sitting up straighter. "I mean, well, my arm's fine…enough. I want to come back to training! I want to prove to them, that," She paused and crinkled her forehead. "I want to prove that I'm NOT a useless little wimp! I want to fight dragons!" Her enthusiasm and determination was all somehow hilarious to Gobber, who let out a thunderous guffaw of laughter and smacked her on the back.

"That's the spirit, lassie! Then I'll see you bright and early tomorrow!"


	3. Chapter 3: In the Mouth of the Dragon

**Thanks for the reviews on chapter two! I really appreciate them! **

**If you're wondering why Tiny seems so much more useless this chapter than last, don't worry! I just can't have her being awesome all over the place! She's not just some Mary sue!**

**And so, without further ado, I present Chapter Three!**

Chapter Three

"What, still sleeping? Get up, get up, get up!" Tiny woke with a start as Baggie smacked her over the head with a rather large pair of boots. The old woman was standing over her as she reluctantly rolled off of the makeshift cot and onto the floor.

"Ouch! What was that for? And…Baggie, what time is it!?" She peered out the window and saw that it was almost pitch black outside. She guessed sunrise was still hours away.

"It's midnight, dearie, but we need to get your strength up for your second day of dragon training!" She held the boots over Tiny's head again, but Tiny scrabbled out of the way just in time to miss the swing. She stood up and brushed herself off, taking care not to jostle her right arm, which was strung up in a sling. Baggie had set the broken bone in her forearm last night, and it still had a while before it healed. Who knew punching a dragon could do that to an arm?

"Get my strength up…what?" Tiny narrowed her eyes at the old woman, not liking where this was going. She was exhausted and sore, and any thought of training was so far from her mind at that moment, she would have liked to strangle Baggie.

"Put these on, Thauktin. And be quick about it too. We don't have all day for you to laze around!" Baggie tossed the boots to Tiny, who wasn't able to catch them with one hand. They hit the floor with a deafening thud, which unnerved Tiny. She reached down to pick them up, and found that they were almost as heavy as the shield she'd tried to lift yesterday.

"Baggie, please tell me these aren't weighted boots." She groaned. Baggie just tapped her nose and smiled her devious little smile of hers. Tiny gave one last miserable groan, and stooped to slip on the shoes. They weighed a ton, and she could barely pick her feet off the ground. Baggie led her outside, where she immediately commanded her to run three laps around the entire village. When Tiny complained, Baggie just responded: "Be glad it's not laps around the ISLAND. No, those come later."

Tiny trudged around the village, almost dragging her feet along with her, and tripping over invisible objects every so often. It didn't help that it was so dark, and that Berk rarely ever saw stars, but it was kind of nice to run without a purpose. She was glad the others weren't chasing or watching her.

Tiny completed her three laps in a relatively short time, and met Baggie back on her porch.

"How was that?" She asked, eager to go back inside and sleep some more.

"Too slow." Baggie grunted, arms folded and scowling. "You were much, much too slow. So, you must climb the cliff up to the arena in those boots as a punishment. And DON'T you DARE use the stairs."

"But, but Baggie! I've got a broken arm! How in Thor's name am I able to get up the cliff! I'd kill myself!"

"That's not my problem. But I guess that is a little harsh." She leaned against the outside wall and rubbed her wrinkly forehead. "Okay, tell you what: you only have to climb it once, and then you can use the stairs on the way back down."

Tiny argued, Baggie argued. Tiny lost the argument. So, an hour later, Tiny was hanging by one arm off the side of the cliff, her feet painfully sore and heavy from the boots. She was almost to the top of the ridge, about fifteen feet, but she was also a long way from the ground, about one hundred feet. She didn't dare look down, but every so often, she had to, to make sure she was getting a firm foot-hold.

"You can do this, Thauktin! You can do this! Just…a few…more…feet!" She balance herself on a small ledge and reached up to grab a rock jutting from the cliff, but was surprised when the rock came out of the wall in her hands. She teetered backwards, swayed forwards, rocked backwards again, and lost her footing. For the second time in twenty four hours, she was almost sure this was the end of her. She hoped she hit the ground headfirst, so she'd get knocked out and wouldn't have to feel the pain of dying.

Something shot forward and hooked itself around Tiny's good wrist. She was jerked upwards, wrenching her shoulder painfully, until she was face to face with her savior.

Gobber set her down on the safe side of the cliff, and gave her a very puzzled look.

"Alright, this is strange, even fer you." He stated frankly as Tiny caught her breath and rubbed her sore shoulders. "What were ya doin', do ya mind tellin' me? My Gods, Thauktin, you seem to have quite the taste for danger, don'cha?" Tiny held up a finger to silence him, and stood up.

"Baggie…made me…training she said. I've got to wear these…" She picked up a foot to show Gobber her weighted boots. He stooped to inspect them.

"Hmmm. Maybe…maybe Baggie wasn't the best person ter leave ya with." He muttered, more to himself than to Tiny. "Trainin', ya say? Don't see what this'll do. Ya're already a fast runner. What ya need to work on is arm strength." He chuckled to himself, as if the notion of Tiny getting stronger was funny to him, and stood back up. "Listen, Thauktin. Don' listen to Baggie anymore. You'll be trainin' enough with me from now on. And these boots…they're just cruel." He smiled.

"Hey, wait," Tiny cocked her head to the side and peered up into Gobber's face. Dawn wasn't even there yet, but why had Gobber been here to save her? "Why are YOU up here so early?"

"Got ter get the arena ready fer trainin'" He said, stabbing at a pile of wooden slates beside the arena with his thumb. "And, you were screamin' pretty loud." Tiny shrugged her shoulders, just as puzzled as Gobber. She hadn't realized she'd been screaming, but, she was too tired to argue any longer. With a thank you to Gobber and a wave goodbye, she started her long treck down the stone steps back towards Baggie's house.

"Great, the runt's back." Tiny was so used to the barrage of insults, she was almost able to ignore Snotlout as she trudged up to the edge of the arena. "Aw, did you hurt your little arm?" He fluttered his eyelids and spoke in a sickeningly high falsetto voice. Tiny was pretty sure that voice was making all the dogs in Berk go crazy. Everyone (except Gobber) was standing at the edge of a giant maze, set up smack dab in the middle of the arena. The walls were big, thick pieces of wood, and Tiny inwardly nodded in understanding. So this was what Gobber had been doing so early in the morning.

"Glad you could join us, Tiny." Gobber's disembodied voice rang out from somewhere in the maze, and it caused everyone to jump. "Welcome," He stepped out from behind one of the walls, "To your second day of dragon training."

Tiny looked up and down the row of scrawny Vikings. She really didn't see why they made fun of her for being so small; Astrid was a walking twig and Ruffnut was a beanpole. Snotlout and Fishlegs were the only ones with any meat on their bones. But she couldn't stay distracted for long; Gobber was explaining the day's task.

"Alright. So, ya've already faced yer first Gronkle, so today, we'll start off with the Deadly Nader." Tiny zoned her instructor out for a few minutes. She'd already read the Dragon handbook several times through, and knew what she was up against. Quick, agile, smart, yes yes yes, she'd heard all that before. Bright blue with golden spikes, yes. It even had a blind spot, which Gobber wouldn't reveal but Tiny knew it was under its nose. She instead turned her gaze upwards, to watch as the few birds that dared live in such an inhospitable place as Berk stretched their front-bitten wings and took morning flight. She'd always found birds beautiful creatures, with their tiny wings and dazzling colors. It gave her hope, that something so small could be so pretty.

"Thauktin! Quit that bird-watchin' and get yer head in the game!" Tiny shook her head and looked around. All the other trainees had already dived into the maze, and she was the only one left outside. From the groan and creak of wooden doors, she knew that Gobber was releasing the Nader, and she knew she had to move fast. Without the giant weighted boots, she moved as quick as lightning, snatching up the lightest thing she could find on the weapons rack (a copper-hilted blade) and ducked behind one of the maze walls. The game had begun.

Tiny crept along the walls as silently as she could. There was a considerable amount of crashing going on around her, and it wasn't hard to disguise her footsteps, but it never hurt to be careful. The walls were at least eight feet high, and it was impossible to see where the dragon was. Tiny figured it would be best to judge how far away she was from the beast, and so, setting the blade on the ground, she scrabbled up the side of the wall. Her broken arm didn't make it any easier, but her good hand finally grasped the top of the wall, and she was able to haul herself up. Just as her eyes skimmed over the top to look down on the other side, there was a sickening crunch of metal, and a flapping of reptilian wings.

Slowly, she looked back down over her shoulder, and saw the Nader, its foot on her broken sword and its jaws just inches from her dangling feet. Its giant golden eyes stared at her, locking with hers for a split second. Her mouth hung open, and for a moment, she didn't feel anything. Not fear, not embarrassment, not anger, not anything. That faded quickly though, when the Nader opened its giant mouth and let out a blood-curdling screech.

Tiny let out a scream herself, and was only just able to scramble over the wall and onto the other side before the Nader was snapping at her feet. She hit the ground on her side, and a cloud of dust was kicked up around her. She let out another terrified shriek as the wall beside her creaked, signaling that the Nader was sitting on it, directly above her.

"It's got Tiny! It's got Tiny!" Snotlout was shouting from somewhere to her left, and another yell came from Fishlegs, to her right. Tiny jumped up and started running. There was no strategy to her flight; she just wanted to get as far from the dragon as possible. The walls around her were trembling; the Nader hopping from slat to slat, stalking her from above.

"Watch out fer that," Gobber called from above. "Naders are dead quick."

"Thanks for that!" Tiny shouted up sarcastically. The Nader was still on her tail, but was falling farther behind. She suspected that he was distracted, because she'd caught a glimpse of Hiccup running around, and figured the Nader had too.

The giant blue dragon finally turned its attention to someone else; Tiny couldn't be bothered to look. Her pace slowed, until finally she stopped and leaned up against a wall to catch her breath.

"Look, she's still alive!" Fishlegs was peering at her from around a pathway. The ugly heads of the twins peeked to, and their eyebrows furrowed.

"Man, we were so close!" Tuffnut snorted.

"How'd she get away? I thought it had her for sure!" It was so nice to have encouraging friends in times of peril.

Tiny was able to rest for several more minutes undisturbed. The Nader was busying itself with Astrid and Hiccup, who were having some sort of scuffle. She slid down the wall and sat with her knees tucked into her chest. Her one good arm was wrapped around her legs, and her eyes shifted around frantically, watching for the telltale golden spikes.

"What's this? Giving up already are we?" Tiny squeezed her eyes shut when Snotlout just so happened to waltz by. How convenient for him.

"Ug." She let out a tiny groan before tipping her head up to look at her tormentor. "What could you possibly want with me now, Snotlout?"

"I figure it's good to hang around you when there's dragons involved. Why would they take me when there's much more easy pickins around?" He grinned, his crooked teeth gleaming yellow in the dull sunlight of the morning.

"Look, I don't care if you think of me as some sort of…human shield, just," She rubbed her temples, "Don't speak. I've got enough of a headache already." To this Snotlout just laughed.

"Poor poor Tiny! Got a little headache! Tsk Tsk. Always with the excuses!"

"You really couldn't be any stupid-"Tiny was cut off mid-sentence. Her eyes opened as big as dinner plates and she pointed to something behind Snotlout.

"What?" He asked, shrugging his shoulders. "Oh, don't play that. I'm not falling for it. 'Oh look Snotlout! The dragon's right behind you!'" He imitated Tiny's voice and donned an oafish smile. "Nice try though."

Tiny didn't have time to ridicule him any longer. She scrambled to her feet and started running. Snotlout's scream was all she needed to know that he'd found out that the Nader was right behind him.

"I told you!" She called out behind her. Snotlout didn't reply, but ran right next to her. They might have gotten away, if not for the inevitable dead end they hit. Both Vikings spun around to face the blue menace, its long ivory fangs ripping with drool.

"Gobber! Do something! It's going to kill us!" Snotlout screamed. As usual, Gobber did absolutely nothing.

"That won't work!" Tiny whispered, pressing herself up next to the wall. She didn't want to turn her back to climb up the wall; she wouldn't be quick enough. She was contemplating trying to squeeze around the Nader, when Snotlout shouldered her forward and shot up the side of the wall. "Hey!" she whimpered as she was propelled toward the great blue beast. Everything happened in slow motion after that.

The fall was unexpected; she slipped on a patch of dragon drool, and was on her back in nano seconds. She didn't feel any pain as the Nader snapped up her leg and started to drag her backwards. She didn't feel anything again. The only thought that ran through her mind was 'Is this becoming a pattern? How many times in a single day can someone almost die?' She kicked the Nader in the snot, but it wouldn't let go.

It was very unexpected when she felt tugging on her shoulders. She looked up to see Snotlout puling on her against the dragon. There was an odd look on his face. Not quite a grimace, not a scowl. What was it? It looked a little like determination, but…she couldn't tell.

The Nader pulled back obviously, not wanting to let go of its lunch, but Snotlout held fast. Finally, he gave one last heave, and Tiny's boot was pulled off by the dragon. Snotlout and Tiny went flying backwards and crashed into the wall behind them. The dragon took its prize and trotted off, seemingly content with its leather snack.

"Ouch," Snotlout growled, rubbing his head where it collided with the wall. Tiny propped herself up on her elbows and gave him a look of disbelief.

"Why'd you do that!?" She gasped, pushing her nags back. Snotlout scowled and shrugged.

"It was nothing, okay? Nothing."

"But-"

"Listen. It. Was. Nothing. Don't get your hopes up, shrimp; I still hate your guts." He got up and started stumbling away. Tiny watched him go, and then flopped back down on the ground. Her foot was cold, and her head was now throbbing, but she didn't care. She knew the worse was over. Gobber was shouting something at the Nader, Astrid was shouting something at Hiccup, Tuffnut and Ruffnut were just shouting to shout. The game was over, but Tiny didn't know if she'd won or lost.

Tiny sat with her feet soaking in a tub of warm water in the middle of Baggie's front room. A bandage was wrapped around her head, blood blossoming out of a gash above her right ear. Baggie was hovering around her, cackling and clapping her hands.

"I see I see! So then what happened?" She inquired, quite involved in the retelling of Tiny's day.

"Listen Baggie, I really don't feel like talking right now. Can you ask me again later?" Baggie held up a boney finger and opened her mouth to argue, but was interrupted by a rapping at the door. Tiny expected Baggie to shuffle over and open the door, but she didn't move.

"Well?" She asked. Baggie gave her a quizzical look.

"You're the youngin'. You open the door; that's why you're here!" Tiny limped over to the door, and found Snotlout standing behind it. She quickly shut the door in his face.

"Wait, Tiny! Open the door!" his muffled cry came, and she reopened the door, just a crack.

"What?"

"Here" Snotlout shoved something towards the door. Tiny opened it a little further, and saw that it was her missing boot; the one the Nader had stolen. Snotlout was wearing his usual grimace.

"Oh. Well, thanks…I guess." She grabbed the boot and stuck it on her foot.

"Listen, we only wrestled it away because if we'd of let the dragon keep it, he'd think he'd won, okay?"

"Whatever." Tiny snapped the door shut again, and limped back over to Baggie, who was wearing her devious little smile again.

"What a lame excuse," she chuckled, her wooden eye swinging around wildly.


	4. Chapter 4: Firelight Conversation

**Thank you all so much for the reviews! I love it when people read my stories! **

**My favorite quote, concerning a certain rude boy and cutting off limbs with his face, is coming up! XD It's really short this time, but it doesn't include any training scenes.**

**Chapter Four**

"Lazy lazy! You young people are so lazy!" Baggie was flailing her arms around, as Tiny sat on her cot and shrunk back from her hurtful words. "I swear, I've never met a youngin' with even an ounce of work ethic! Honestly, it's not even training! Gobber just wants to meet up with the trainees!"

"Baggie," Tiny exhaled, and shook her head. "Baggie, that's precisely my point! I'm exhausted! I've got a broken arm, a twisted ankle, and big gash on my head! It's not like I really WANT to be gallivanting around Berk! It's not training, it's just a meeting!" But Baggie would not have another word on the subject. Tiny hadn't realized it, but Baggie was actually pretty strong, and in a matter of seconds, had hoisted Tiny up onto her shoulders and was carrying her outside.

"You are going, and that is final! Freid put me in charge of you, so what I say goes!" She snapped, and dropped Tiny into the dust by her door. She landed with a thump, and before she could protest and scamper back inside, Baggie had slammed the door shut on her.

"Great, fine! But the next time a dragon's burning your roof, don't expect any help from me!" She shouted at the house. The sky was getting dark, and an unusual warmth had settled itself over Berk. It was very rare to have the temperature rise above 40 degrees, even in the summer, but Tiny guessed it might have been around 45.

She could already see Gobber and the others, sitting up by the tallest spot-light post on the far side of the village. The fire was burning extra bright, and their shouts and laughs were carrying all over the village. Not that there were many people to disturb, most were gone on the search party.

Tiny lugged her sore feet up the skinny winding staircase to the top of the spotlight, where the trainees were perched on a little wooden look-out platform.

"Finally!" Gobber called as Tiny plopped down next to him. "I wanted ya all to be here so I can tell ya about my first years as a dragon slayer." Double great. It wasn't even going to be anything important he wanted to tell them, just a dumb story she'd heard already. What a waste of a good night.

"If yeh can believe it, I started out with both arms and legs, attached to my body!" He laughed, waving his hook hand in the air. "Yup! I was a force to be reckoned with when I had this hand, but I was too cocky. I thought I could best any dragon that came my way, and then one day, when I was right about your age," He poked Hiccup in the chest, who was sitting to his other side, "A Hideous Zippleback swooped right down, and took a bite of my hand!" At this point, Fishlegs gasped and nearly tumbled backwards, and the twins leaned in, not wanting to miss a single detail. Astrid was staring off into space, looking rather bored, and Hiccup was growing increasingly darker shades of green.

"What happened next?" Fishlegs whispered, looking like he didn't really want to know what happened next.

"Well, there was a lot of screechin' from my part," Gobber chuckled, "And not long after I made myself this hook, I got my dern leg bitten off!" He waggled his peg leg in the air, to the amusement of the twins. Interestingly, Gobber didn't seem at all bitter that he'd been robbed of most of his Viking ability, though it was plain to see he wasn't up to par with Stoick or the other head Vikings.

"Gobber," Snotlout stood and pounded his right fist into his left hand. "I swear, I'll cut off every arm and leg of every dragon I catch, with my face!" Tiny rolled her eyes and rested her head in her hand. Leave it to Meat-head Snotlout to make absolutely no sense.

"As well as that may be, ya never want ter go fer the legs; it's the wings and tail ya want ter go for." Gobber leaned down on his knee and motioned for the kids to move closer to hear. "Take out its wing and tail and it can't fly. And," Tiny noticed, out of the corner of her eye, Hiccup's eyes get big as dinner plates, "A downed dragon is a dead dragon." Gobber finished his shpeal with a curt nod of the head and leaned back.

Tiny thought she might have been the only one to notice it, but she thought she saw Hiccup slip away, with a positively horrified look in his eyes. She cocked her head and wondered where the boy was going in such a hurry.

"Hey mud-face, how's the bum arm?" Ruffnut crooned, and poked Tiny's sling. Tiny cringed and leaned away, which just drew cruel snickers from the others. Everyone except, Snotlout, which was odd. He was usually the ringleader, being the most confident, loudest sleezeball of them all.

Tiny sighed and decided she just wasn't up to defending herself tonight.

"What about it, Snotlout? Got any new names to call me? As long as we're going to start tormenting me, you might as well throw whatever you got at me." She shrugged her shoulders and tiredly raised her eyebrows at him. He just snorted and rolled his brown eyes back.

"C'mon, Snotlout," Tuffnut elbowed his friend in the side, a slightly worried look on his face. "She's practically asking for it! You got to have something!" Snotlout took a deep breath, and shut his eyes for a moment, before his usual goofy grin spread across his face.

"Yeah yeah, keep yer pants on. We've just called her so many names; it's hard to think up new ones." Tiny shouldn't have expected anything different. For a moment there, she'd actually been hoping Snotlout would tell them to shut up, or defend her, or at least stay silent. But, she'd been wrong. She was surprised that she was surprised! She inwardly scolded herself for being so stupid.

The night went on exactly the same as any other night. Names, insults, snide comments from Astrid, laughing. The only difference was that Tiny was just too tired to care. All she wanted to do was crawl up in her own bed in her own house and just leave Berk behind. But she knew she still had to go back to Baggie's so, just around midnight, she started the long trek back to the run-down cottage, and away from the fire and the glowing laughter of the friends she wished she had.


	5. Chapter 5: Popularity Scheme

**Chapter Five**

"Mrphmfm." Tiny buried her head into her pillow. "Go away, I'm sleeping!" She curled up in a tighter ball as she was shaken awake. Baggie had made a nasty habit of depriving the poor girl of her much needed sleep, and Tiny was NOT ready to get up yet. But when Tiny peeked out from under the pillow, it wasn't Baggie she saw.

"AAAHHHHH!" Tiny let out an earth-shattering shriek as she stumbled backwards off of the cot. She landed on her butt, face to face with a horde of itty-bitty terrible terrors. Each was about the size of a kitten, and they were all breathing smoke. "BAGGIE! LOOK, YOU CRAZY OLD BAT! DRAGONS!" Tiny got up and started running through Baggie's house, throwing blankets off chairs and beds looking for her host. The old woman was no-where to be found, and Tiny finally realized she needed to warn Berk.

She burst out of the house, but instead of planting her feet firmly on the grass outside the cottage, she found herself falling. Not just a mis-taken-step fall, she was actually falling! The ground outside the cottage had disappeared and was now just a giant black abyss!

"WHAT IS HAPPENING!!!" She screamed as she fell, feeling utterly confused. She fell for quite some time; so much time, in fact, that she almost stopped being afraid of hitting the ground. But all good things must end, and Tiny met the ground with a loud and, surprisingly unpainful crash.

"Look! Over there!" She sat up, scratching her head and wondering how she wasn't dead, when hands grasped her upper arms and hauled her to her feet. It was then that she realized that, A) her arm wasn't broken nor in a sling, and B) she'd either died in her sleep and this was some sort of weird entrance into Valhalla, or it was a dream. She decided it must have been a dream, because the person who'd shouted and hauled her up was Snotlout.

"Wha-"She dazedly looked around as not only the twins appeared, but so did Fishlegs, Hiccup, and Astrid. "What are you guys…?"

"We saw you fall!" Ruffnut said, smoothing Tiny's hair. "Are you alright?"

"Why were you on the roof anyway?" Astrid inquired, brushing the dust off of Tiny's shoulders.

"Roof…?" Tiny swayed a bit, and Snotlout steadied her again.

"You just take it easy, okay? Don't worry; we'll finish patching up Baggie's roof." Tiny raised her eyebrow at Snotlout, who was acting downright nice. This was defiantly a dream.

"I heard the crash from inside!" A startlingly familiar voice came from behind Tiny, and she turned around to see Baggie rushing out of her house, though, it wasn't really Baggie. A giant Terrible Terror wearing Baggie's clothes and with her same wooden eye was rushing out of the door, speaking with her voice. At this, Tiny could take no more, and fainted.

"That was quite a fall, Dearie!" Tiny's eyes flew open and focused on Baggie's real aged face, peering at her from over the cot Tiny had just fallen off of. "Havin' a nightmare I suppose, shouting 'Dragons!' and 'Help!' and 'What's going on?'. Tell me, what was the dream about?" Tiny sat up and shook her head.

"It…it was really…weird." She started, and looked out of the window. It was already light out, which was a very pleasant surprise. Pleasant, until she realized it was almost already noon, and she'd over-slept. "Oh my Gods, I'm late! Aw man, I'm late for dragon training!" She jumped up to her feet and started rushing around Baggie's house, looking for her boots and helmet. "Baggie, where's my helmet!?"

"Oh, calm yourself. I let ya sleep because you're not going to training today. Nope," Baggie tugged on a pair of boots herself, and winked. "No, I have a little chore for you to do. Gobber asked me this mornin'."

"What?" Tiny paused, one boot on the wrong foot and the other on the other side of the room. She was suspicious of what the chore was, seeing as Gobber asked Baggie to do it.

"You'll see. Now get those boots on and fallow me." Baggie marched outside with a determined spring in her step. Tiny silently applauded the old woman for being so upbeat; she didn't think Baggie had had it in her. Baggie marched the right into the forest, down a little trail that looked like it'd been cut away for them and to a giant tree stump with a big, long, silvery saw sitting on top. Tiny had a very bad feeling.

"Baggie…you're not going to make me chop wood…are you?"

"No! You're much too frail for that. Besides," Baggie pointed to a big circular chunk of wood already lying beside the stump. Now that Baggie pointed it out, Tiny started to notice quite a few wooden circles lying about the forest. "Goober already did that for us. I just need you to figure out which is the lightest."

Tiny shrugged and walked up to the closest circle. She grabbed one end with her good arm and yanked up, expecting to be resisted, but finding it was considerably lighter than the shields she'd failed to lift the other day. In fact, she could lift it over her head with one hand!

"Good, good, that's oak. It's pretty strong, but burns easily. Let's move on to another." Baggie commented, and Tiny went to the next circle of wood. "This one's pine. I'd expect it to be light, too, but, I'd bet pine dries out too much...but go ahead, lift it." Tiny lifted this one too, it was much lighter, but felt a bit flimsy. On and on, Baggie commanded Tiny to lift different pieces of wood, while making comments on each type.

After about an hour, Baggie and Tiny finally decided which piece of wood was both the lightest and the most durable, and that was the elm. Tiny's arm was full of splinters by the time they hiked back to the village, and the sun was starting its downward arch into the ocean. Baggie and Tiny took the wood to Gobber's workshop, and Tiny was beginning to understand what was going on. Baggie looked quite pleased with herself.

"Give this to Gobber!" she commanded to Hiccup, who was sitting in the workshop, sanding something that looked like a saddle. Hiccup clumsily stumbled over the tools strewn about the floor and took the wood.

"What does he need this for?" He asked, weighing the would-be shield in his hands.

"None of your beeswax, sonny!" Baggie snapped at poor Hiccup and gave him a sharp rap on the head with her cane. Hiccup slunk away silently, and Tiny tried to give him a look, explaining that Baggie was just plain crazy. She hoped he got the message.

As they hiked back to Baggie's house, the old woman took hold of Tiny's broken arm and yanked it out of the sling. "Isn't this healed yet!?" She rasped, wiggling it around in the air. Tiny winced in pain as she tried to yank her arm free.

"Ouch! Baggie, it takes time to heal, it takes time!" Tiny wrenched her arm from Baggie's grip and set it gingerly back in its cradle. Baggie snorted disdainfully.

"You youngin's and your excuses! In my day, you just wrapped it up for a day, and it was fine!" Baggie went on mumbling and griping to herself the whole way home, then promptly forgot about it once inside, and fell asleep on her loom. Tiny rolled her eyes. Old people were so weird!

Tiny slouched down at her table, trying to blend in with the wood. It was dinner time and as usual, Tiny was sitting alone. Not many of the remaining people had arrived yet, so it was still pretty empty. Only a few of the adults were clustered together, mumbling about something, and Astrid sat at a table near Tiny's, her feet kicked up and the dragon manual in her hands. She had a furious look on her face, and was flipping through the pages, obviously searching for some piece of information. She didn't give Tiny a sideways glance.

Next to file in were the Twins, who were smacking Fishleg's arms around like eels. Fishlegs didn't look miserable; Tiny decided he must not have felt the blows through the fat on his arms. They all sat down at Astrid's table, and when Tuffnut tried to say something to the enraged girl, she just about bit his nose off.

Snotlout came next, with a scowl and drenched hair. Tiny wondered what everyone had been doing at dragon training, because now that she thought about, both Astrid and Ruffnut were soaked, too.

Lastly came Hiccup, who wore his usual slouch and look of meekness. He sat down at the table next to Astrid's, and, surprisingly, everyone from Astrid's table moved over to sit with Hiccup. Astrid, Tiny and Hiccup's mouths all fell open at the same time, astonished that Hiccup was suddenly so popular. What had happened at dragon training!? Asdrid slammed the thick dragon manual down on the table (drawing no attention from the others) and stalked out of the hall. Tiny sat uncertainly for a second, wondering if she'd regret talking to Astrid, then got up and followed her out.

"Hey, Astrid?" Tiny sped up to walk beside the fuming girl, who turned her ice cold Gaze on Tiny.

"What?"

"Well, what was that back there? Why was…I mean, what happened at dragon training today? Baggie dragged me off to do some chores for her, and I, well-"

"If you put in the effort to show up today, you'd know we learned about the Hideous Zippleback." Astrid snorted and tossed her golden braid over her shoulder. "That little snob Hiccup thinks he's all that, just because he got lucky one time! I was the one who roughed the Zippleback up for him! Jeez, but do I get any credit at all? No!" Her hands were flying all over the place, Tiny had no idea Astrid was so animated!

"Oh, well, um, thanks. I-uh, well, I'll see you-"

"Why are you still talking to me?" The taller girl spun on her heel to look down on Tiny. She wore an expression of pure and utter disgust, like she couldn't believe Tiny had the audacity to speak to her. Before Tiny could even squeak, Astrid had already spun back around and stalked off.

"-Tomorrow." She finished, letting her arm hand down loosely, and her bangs fall in her face. Why was she such an idiot? Why did everyone hate her? What she wouldn't have done to get popular, just for fifteen minutes! She'd have people gawking at HER cleverness and HER intellect, and then she'd show them that she was a nice person! How had Hiccup done it so fast? He'd become a celebrity overnight, and Tiny knew, everyone despised Hiccup almost as much as they despised her.

That was it! Hiccup knew the secret to becoming popular! He'd done it, so why couldn't she? Tiny made a fist and silently vowed to Odin, she'd get the answer out of the scrawny boy if it was the last thing she did!


	6. Chapter 6: Dragons and Dunderheads

**Chapter Six**

Tiny crept through the house, trying not to wake Baggie. It was only sunset and the old bag had already fallen asleep. She was cranky when you woke her up, so Tiny didn't dare make a noise, though, when the majority of the floorboards creek underfoot, that's a very hard deed. She actually took off her shoes, which seemed to do the trick, and was able to walk to the door and slip out of the cottage. Once outside, Tiny started running.

She'd seen Hiccup give the other trainees the slip after dinner, and was determined to follow him. She wanted to ask him something important, and had a very small opportunity to do so. She didn't know where the boy was going, but it was easy to follow his trail; he moved through the woods like a dragon (loud and obnoxiously).

Tiny, on the other hand, was very nimble when dodging low-lying branches and thickets of thorns. She barely ever tripped herself up in the forest; though, if it was because she was quick or if she'd had a lot of practice running from the twins, she didn't know.

Hiccup's trail was skinny and somewhat hard to see, him being a very slight person. But, the most peculiar thing happened. His trail veered to the right deep within the woods, and opened up into a huge path, that looked like it'd been rolled through by a huge boulder! The trees and bushed were either flattened or broken and pushed out of the way, and big piles of earth were all over the place, like something had crashed there. Something very big, and Tiny had a bad feeling, something very BAD.

Her bad feeling only grew when she started noticing large black scales lying about. They were as big as her face, and she almost needed both hands to lift one. It was shiny and slick, and glinted almost silver in the filtered dying light. Tiny swallowed hard and crept forward, very afraid of what she was going to find.

In front of her was a huge crater, complete with rock sides, and even a small pond in the middle. Trees grew around the edge of the crater, shielding it from view from above, which must have been why she'd never seen this place from any hills. But she couldn't gaze at the beauty of the crater for long; she saw Hiccup, climbing down the side of the crater.

Tiny ran forward, meaning to shout to get his attention, but her words dyed in her throat; because there, sitting at the bottom of the crater, was a very big and very black Night Fury. Or, at least, she thought it was a Nightfury. She'd never seen one before, no-one had, and she'd only seen the destruction it caused. Her mouth hung open in a silent scream as Hiccup, seemingly unknowingly, jumped down to the bottom of the crater and dusted his pants off.

The Nightfury immediately rushed the boy, but Tiny was rooted to her place among the undergrowth; her hands clapped over her mouth in horror. She squeezed her eyes shut, and waited for the inevitable crunch of human bones as Hiccup was crushed.

Tiny waited, and waited, and finally, didn't hear anything but a few surprised shouts from Hiccup. She peeked open her eyes, just a crack, to see what had become of the poor Viking. She was astonished to see that, the Nightfury was not eating him alive, but was running around him excitedly, wagging its tail like a dog! And Hiccup was SMILING and SCRATCHING ITS HEAD!

Tiny didn't know whether to be angry or afraid. Here was Hiccup, the second smallest Viking I Berk, son of the chief, befriending a man-eating dragon!

"Hey Toothless, here, I've got something for you!" Tiny's ears perked as she heard Hiccup talking to the beast. Toothless? Oh, what an ironic name, she thought. She snuck up to the edge of the crater and hid beneath a bush. She wanted to see what was going to happen next. Hiccup dragged a big leather contraption over to the Nightfury, who sniffed unenthusiastically.

"Oh, c'mon, it's not that bad, I just don't want to DIE every time I ride you. You DO want to fly again, don't you?" Hiccup hoisted the thing, Tiny assumed it was the saddle she'd seen him working on in Gobber's shop, up onto 'Toothless's' back. The dragon squirmed uncomfortably under it, but didn't put up much of a fight. Tiny was absolutely amazed at how well Hiccup had managed to train this thing! Though, she wondered what he'd meant when he said "you do want to fly again, don't you?" Why couldn't the dragon fly?

She watched as Hiccup attached some sort of sail to the dragon's tail, and then hooked it up to an apparatus on the left-stirrup of the saddle. It was like a cord, and the sail opened when the cord was pulled tight. It was ingenious.

"Well, should we take it for a test-run?" Tiny was almost dulled into a sleep when Hiccup finally jumped onto the saddle and the Nightfury took off. The glided around the crater for a few seconds, and then launched into the sky. Tiny watched as they grew smaller in the night sky, until she couldn't see them any longer.

Tiny woke the next morning with huge dark circles under her eyes. She'd stumbled her way back to Baggie's house, not being able to see the ground two feet in front of her, and snuck into the cottage un-noticed.

She sat up and stretched, before being verbally attacked by Baggie, as she was every morning.

"Get up! It's time for dragon training! Don't piddle the day away sleeping!" She croned, throwing things at Tiny; her helmet with it's one crooked horn, her too-big boots, her belt to hold up the pants that didn't quite fit her, and so on.

"All right, Baggie, I'm going!" Tiny sighed as she was shoved out the door. "Jeez, for on old lady, you're not very nice." Tiny grumbled to herself all the way up to the arena, up every single stair, through the gate and to the line of eager trainees to start another day full of near death-experiences.

"Tiny! Glad you're here today! I've got somethin' fer ya!" Gobber clapped his hands together once before throwing her a shield. She put her hands up to catch it, and found it to be very light. It was then she realized it must have been made from the wood she and Baggie had picked out yesterday. It had a few metal rivets in it, as well as metal bindings around the edges. The wood had been charred a bit, and was a darker color than Tiny remembered it being. "I would have had it to ya yesterday, but Hiccup here ran off to Thor knows where." He jabbed his thumb at his apprentice, who smiled nervously and shrugged. Little did Gobber know that Hiccup had been cavorting with a Nightfury.

"What a wimp." Snotlout sneered, rolling his eyes. "Had to have a special shield made so she could actually lift it!" Tuffnut joined in with Snotlout's obnoxious laughter, and Tiny pulled her helmet over her eyes.

"Shut up you great lumps!" Gobber smacked the boys on their heads in one swift movement. "We've got work to do! Today, I've got ter show ya one of the most dangerous dragons there is." Gobber walked over to the second biggest door on the side of the arena, and pulled out the lock. Everyone cringed back, anticipating a Nightmare or another gigantic dragon, but instead where greeted by a small fury of wings as a Terrible Terror zipped out of the door.

"What, this?" Tuffnut shouted, his mouth hanging open in disbelief. "That little thing? It's the size of my- AHHH!" Before he could finish that potentially disturbing sentence, the tiny dragon had flown forward in an almost invisible whir of wings and launched itself at the blonde boy's face. "Get it off me! Get it off me!" he screamed as the Terror scratched and bit at his eyes. Tiny thought she rather liked that dragon.

"Don't just stand there? Get it off of him!" Gobber called from the other side of the arena. Ruffnut and Astrid shrugged at each other, before reaching down and pulling the spitting dragon off Tuffnut's now-swollen face. Astrid had a solid grip on the Terror, and it wasn't going anywhere.

"This little thing couldn't hurt anyone." She said, raising an eyebrow. "Except an idiot."

"Don't underestimate them," Gobber warned. "They have a spark that could burn metal, and they hold a grudge." Tiny watched as the little Terror squirmed in Astrid's hand, trying to break free. She could see the anger in its eyes and the frustration building up inside of him, but didn't feel like warning Astrid about what she knew was coming next. Not after how Astrid had talked to her last night.

"OUCH!" the girl squealed as the dragon let loose a breathe of fire on her hand. She instantly let go of him and he scuttled off towards Fishlegs and Hiccup. He had the look of death in his eyes, and he wanted revenge. Tiny leapt forward and, ripping the helmet off her head, trapped the Terror under it.

"That's the way ter do it!" Gobber called. The Terror bonked around inside her helmet for a few minutes, while the others gathered round to watch. Once it had gone silent, Gobber walked over and grabbed the dragon from under Tiny's helmet. "These things work in packs, too. One may not be a huge problem, but a pack of 'em can carry off an entire herd of sheep."

"Stupid thing!" Tuffnut sniffled as Gobber shuffled away with the fuming Terror. Ruffnut was trying to wipe up the blood from her brothers face, but we was squirming too much. "Stupid dragons. I swear, when I get chosen to kill that Nightmare, I'll-"

"You? Kill the nightmare?" Astrid laughed, tossing her braid again. "Yeah right. I'll be the one to do THAT. You can just watch."

"I'll be watching!" Snotlout said, scooting up next to Astrid, an oafish smile on his face. Tiny rolled her eyes.

"Are we done today?" Hiccup piped up from the back. He was shuffling his feet nervously and twiddling his thumbs. "Yes? Okay, then, I'll just be going!" Everyone watched as he bolted out of the arena. Tiny knew where he was going, but, oddly, didn't think it was right to tell anyone what Hiccup had been doing as of late. She knew it was traitorous, and an all around bad idea, but, she felt as if it just wasn't her secret to tell, so she kept quiet.

Tiny sat with her toes in the water. She was sitting on the docks, and the tide was coming in. The sun was halfway down the sky, and she hoped she wouldn't be disturbed. Tiny needed a few minutes every day where she could just be alone with her thoughts, and not be tormented by the other young Vikings or Baggie. She looked down into the water and saw her reflection, tired and haggard looking. She didn't know how Astrid looked so perfect all the time; dragon training really took a lot out of you.

Her reflection was shattered as Tiny's helmet slipped off her head and fell into the water. It wasn't all that heavy, so it didn't sink, but instead floated on top of the water. She was about to reach down and grab it before it was swept out beyond her reach, when something small hit the back of her head. She looked up to see Snotlout standing at the entrance to the dock, some pebbles in hand.

"Hey weakling." He shouted as he sent another pebble whizzing past Tiny's head. She dodged in time for it to miss and splash down into the water. "What're you up to?" She hated the casual tone he took with her; like they were friends. It made her want to punch him again.

Tiny decided the best response would be to just ignore him, and reached again for her helmet, but was dismayed to find it floating farther out into the water. She couldn't reach it!

"What, you lost your helmet?" She jumped as Snotlout spoke; she hadn't realized he's walked up to stand just behind her. "What kind of an idiot drops their helmet in the water? It'll float away."

"Oh, yes, how stupid of me!" Tiny spun around and glared at Snotlout, who seemed a little surprised by her retaliation. "I dropped my helmet in the water on purpose! Of course I did, I'm just stupid useless Tiny!" She shouted the last part, before turning back around and sitting down. She had an idea; she was going to try and reach it with her foot, because her leg was longer than her arm. She stretched her leg out and tried to catch the edge of her helmet, but her toes just barely missed the brim.

"Jeez, I didn't think you did it on purpose." Snotlout grumbled above her. "Fine, I'll leave you to it."

"Yes, thank you! Finally, he leaves!" She said, rolling her eyes. Maybe her other leg would reach…

SPLASH! Tiny screeched as Snotlout canon-balled into the water, sending a wave of water crashing down on her. He surfaced and grabbed her helmet, which he held up to Tiny who was shivering on the dock.

"Why in Thor's name did you do that?" She fumed, snatching the helmet. Snotlout grinned and shook his sopping wet-hair. "Well, if you were too much of a pansy to jump in, I decided I wasn't. You got a problem with that?"

"GODS! Why are you all so stupid?!" She stood up and marched back home, leaving a laughing Snotlout behind.


	7. Chapter 7: A Blunderous Apology

**Chapter Seven**

Tiny sat at the top of the crater, her feet dangling carelessly over the edge of the giant bowl, her head resting in her hands. She watched with amusement as Hiccup ran around the small pond, away from the thundering Toothless, both donning goofy smiles. Tiny herself was smiling, not only because it was funny, but her life lately seemed to be getting better. Her arm wasn't completely healed yet, but it didn't need to be in the sling anymore, and she could do more with it. Baggie's harsh morning training sessions seemed to be doing the trick; she could run faster now, and she found it easier to lift things. Even the other kids left her alone. They were all so preoccupied with Hiccup, he certainly was a spectacle. No dragon could hurt him, and Tiny had finally figured it out. Hiccup was learning how to peacefully subdue the dragons in training from watching Toothless, like that Dragons won't go after you if you've got an Eel on you, and that they like their scales to be scratched.

Tiny had the feeling that Hiccup knew she knew his secret. Once at training, he'd accidentally let slip that he 'Knew that dragons liked sweet-grass' and when Astrid had questioned him as to where he'd learned that, Tiny had covered for him. She'd blurted "Oh yeah, I remember that being a note in the manual." The others didn't think much of it, but Hiccup gave her a look that silently thanked her.

So she didn't try to hide her presence like she used to. She wasn't exactly out in the open, but she wasn't crammed under a bush, either. She knew Toothless had seen her, but wasn't so sure about Hiccup; he looked like he was having too much fun. She didn't care; it was just fun to watch them.

In fact, for the whole week, Tiny felt completely relaxed! Even sitting by herself at dinner didn't bring down her mood. She didn't know why she was so happy all of a sudden, but when Viking ships were spotted on the horizon, she knew her happy days were over.

Training was just starting when the torches were lit. The usual warning signal for dragon instead was accompanied by much joyed shouting from the shore. Gobber postponed the lesson that day to excuse all of the trainees to greet the returning Vikings. And even though only one of the three ships that went out had returned, there was still celebration. Though, the Vikings that stepped off the ships were somber due to their inability to locate the nest, most everyone was just glad they were alive.

Tiny waited for the crowd to thin out before venturing forward to find her parents. Baggie was already on the dock, slapping Tiny's father on the back. Immediately Tiny noticed his hair was shorter and the ends were fried.

"Freid you old goat! Look at yer hair!" Baggie cried, wiping the tears from her eyes, she couldn't help but laugh. He looked ridiculous. "Heh heh, I told you that ya shoulda stayed!"

"Not now, Baggie!" Hermilda waddled up next to her husband, a large scowl on her face. "Where is Thauktin? You didn't leave her alone, did you?" Her hand was grasping Freid's upper arm so tightly, his skin was turning white and his fingers were twitching.

"I'm right here," Tiny piped up, stepping forward to face her parents. Freid smiled and patted Tiny on the head, but Hermilda still held her scowl.

"And did she stay out of trouble?" She eyed Tiny's slightly-swollen arm suspiciously. Despite its recovery, it was still a little bruised. Tiny froze, knowing her mother would not be happy that Baggie had allowed her to train with the others, but Baggie just laughed.

"Oh, that? She was helping me tend the sheep when she spooked 'em and they trampled over that arm!" Tiny tensed, waiting to see if her mother bought the lie. Hermilda's face tightened a bit, before falling into a huge smile.

"Oh, I knew you'd be a good girl!" She gushed, sweeping her daughter up in a bone-crushing hug. Tiny wondered how such a massive woman could have had a kid so scrawny. "Hear that Freid? I told you she'd behave?"

"Well of course she did, I told her to, and she always listens to me!" her father puffed out his chest, but it just made him look funnier, and Tiny chuckled. She was just beginning to think everything would be fine, when one annoyingly pretty Viking waltzed up and tapped on Tiny's shoulder. Astrid had seen and heard the entire exchange, and, looking for any way to improve her chances of being chosen to kill the Nightmare, decided that Tiny needed to be gotten rid of.

"Hey Thauktin," she said cheerily, a fake smile plastered on her face. Tiny turned to face her, and Hermilda looked on with interest. "Gobber wants us back at the arena, to start training. " Tiny winced. Whoops.

"Training?" Freid asked, scratching his chin where his beard used to be.

"Oh yeah, you know, Dragon Training!" Astrid turned to Tiny's father. "Gobber says today we'll review the Nader's weak spots, and-"

"WHAT!?" Hermilda burst out, shoving Tiny out of the way and grasping Astrid's shoulders. Tiny skittered backwards and teetered on the edge of the dock before losing her balance and falling into the water. Astrid went pale as Hermilda advanced on her, thinking that maybe this had been a mistake. "WHY HAS MY DAUGHTER BEEN TRAINING WITH DRAGONS!?" Hermilda shook Astrid back and forth. Tiny wished she could drown.

"Whoa-whoa, hey! Tiny told Gobber her dad let her come!" Astrid backed away from Hermilda, a worried look on her face. "We, we thought-"

"THAUKTIN!!" Tiny _really_ wished she could drown. She watched as her mother reached down and plucked her right out of the water. She looked rather like a bull from that angle. "IS THIS TRUE!?"

"Well, no…I mean yes…I, well- kinda…" Tiny stuttered.

"WELL!?"

"You guys didn't let me know that training was going on! Baggie! Baggie said I could go!" Tiny stabbed her finger at Baggie, who looked as serene as ever. Hermilda stared at the old woman with disbelief.

"Is this true, Bagitha?"

"Nope." Baggie cackled, before turning back and walking towards her house. "Never allowed such a thing. Must have snuck out under my nose." Well, so much for her help. Tiny was set down while her mother paced up and down the dock. Astrid had already escaped and rounded up the others, seeing this as an excellent way to humiliate Tiny. Tiny just hung her head.

"What's going on?" Tuffnut whispered.

"Her mom's blowing up!" Astrid smirked. Ruffnut followed her lead and snorted with laughter.

"What for?" Fishlegs asked, wringing his hands.

"Cause Tiny's a wimp and she told her not to go to training." Astrid said again. Tiny peeked at the pack, noting the devilish expressions of the twins and the forced laughter of the obviously uncomfortable Fishlegs. Snotlout was sneering, but not at her. Which was weird. He was instead glaring at Hermilda, who was no shouting at Freid.

"DO SOMETHING!" She screamed, as Freid squinted and leaned away from his wife.

"What do you want me to do?" He asked. "What's done is done. She's not dead, and look; doesn't she seem a bit more…sturdy to you?" Tiny silently thanked Odin for her father's willingness to totally forget that he'd given her direct orders to stay at Baggies. She stood up as tall as she could, trying to convince her Mother that she was 'sturdy'.

"Freid!" Hermilda gasped, her eyes wide with the shock that her husband wasn't agreeing with her.

"Hermilda, can we discuss this at some other time? We're causing a scene, and," He turned his chubby face to his trembling daughter. "Thauktin, why don't you go with the others? You've started training, and however much we might dislike it, the Rutharia's never quit on anything! We'll discuss your…misbehavior later." Tiny almost fell over from shock. Did she just hear her father say she could continue training? Were her ears clogged with water? How was this possible? She stood still for a few moments. Freid scratched his chin and motioned for her to leave. Tiny didn't ask twice; she was off like a bullet.

"Hey, wait!" Astrid shouted, her voice pumped with venom. Tiny glanced over her shoulder to see Astrid grinding her teeth. She wasn't going to be fun to train with. Tiny turned back and continued to run, but not at full speed, which was a mistake. She was able to make it halfway up the stairs to the arena, when Snotlout finally caught up to her. He grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him. Not only did this almost knock her off the cliff and cause her helmet to tumble down into the ocean below, it caused her to fall forward and knock her forehead against Snotlout's helmet.

"AAAUUGGH!" She cried, her hands flying up to her bruised head. "What in Thor's name was that? Why did you do that!?" She sank down to sit of the steps, almost sure she was bleeding from the gash above her eyes. Why was his helmet so sharp!? Snotlout was startled by the collision too, and had fallen backwards and fallen a few steps.

"Ahh! I'm, that was," He scrambled and jumped up to the step Tiny was on. He stooped awkwardly and tried to pry Tiny's hands away from her forehead, with no luck. He almost looked remorseful.

"Don't touch me!" Tiny moaned, blood trickling through her fingers. "Arg! Look at this? I can't train like this! And, oh!" She closed her eyes. "My Mom's going to SLAUGHTER me!" She was thinking of all the ways her Mom would punish her for this. Dipped in boiling oil seemed like something Hermilda would do.

"That…that was an accident!" He defended himself, "Totally accidental! I- I didn't do that!" He held his hands up and stood up, but almost fainted when he noticed the blood on his hands. "Whoa, Tiny…are you," He turned a ghostly pale color. "You're bleeding!"

"No duh!" Tiny snapped, crawling up to her feet. "What did you expect, knocking me over like that? You're just lucky I didn't black out!" Tiny then proceeded to rip off a bit of her sleeve and wipe the majority of the blood off her face. "You're also lucky I heal quickly." Snotlout wiped Tiny's blood off his hands and stared at her, his eyes pleading.

"I didn't mean to do that, I just, I wanted to say," He was stumbling over his words, and Tiny had no patience for him. She snapped her fingers, to show she was in a hurry.

"Listen Snotlout," She grumped. "we BOTH have to be at the arena, NOW. AND I have to find a way to hide this gash, since you just LOST my helmet!" She crossed her arms and pouted at him. He stood for a minute, seemingly dumbstruck, before plucking the helmet off his own head and placing it on Tiny's, all while holding the same stony expression. The helmet was much too big for Tiny, and she was afraid it was full of lice.

She peeked out from under the brim and scowled. "Excuse me Snotlout, but, I DO NOT want this." Snotlout frowned and blushed, something that almost made Tiny laugh. Blushing? That was only for little girls and…well, herself when the others teased her. Which was every day. "What, embarrassed that I don't want your hat?" Snotlout slowly shook his head. "Then what is the problem?"

"Well, I..I'm Sorry, okay? That's what I wanted to say!" He mumbled, twiddling his thumbs. "I'm sorry for the way I treated you…back then."

"Back then? You act as if it was a long time ago. I think you forget...It was yesterday." Tiny snapped. Usually, she wouldn't dare talk to Snotlout in this way, but she sort of felt empowered, because he'd actually hurt her physically. It was almost like he owed her something.

"I know I know!" He howled, pulling at his hair. "I know that, and, I'm just really sorry okay?" Tiny laughed once. She smiled sarcastically and turned on her heal.

"Yeah, sure you are. Who put you up to this? Who are you really? Because the Snotlout I know would never say sorry to anyone." She climbed a few stairs, and looked back down at Snotlout, expecting to see him signaling to the others, who were probably hidden nearby. She instead saw his staring right back up at her, his arms at his sides like a gorilla.

"You think I'm joking?" He whimpered, a noise previously impossible to him.

"Yes." Tiny replied dryly. She wouldn't be fooled.

"Well, I guess I deserve that." Snotlout scratched his helmetless head and climbed towards Tiny, who tried to stay a few steps ahead of him, but failed. His legs were longer than hers and climbed two steps at a time, while her stubby legs could only climb one at a time. "I'll see you at the arena then," He scooted around Tiny and continued up the steps past her. "You can keep the helmet. Your Mom's pretty scary when she's mad." He half-smiled at her, before the look of defeat shadowed over his face again.

Tiny almost felt bad for not believing him, and then silently reprimanded herself.

"Even if he was sorry," She thought, "I don't forgive him. He caused me so much pain, all my life! I don't think I could ever forgive that boy."


	8. Chapter 8: Resolve

**Chapter Eight**

Tiny didn't know why, but she felt a little bit guilty shuffling up next to Hiccup at the arena. She'd cast a sidelong glance at Snotlout, but he'd been staring straight ahead, expressionless.

'Stop that!' she scolded herself. 'You shouldn't care about that oaf!' She knew she shouldn't have been so affected by his awkward apology, but unfortunately, she was a nice person, and couldn't help but feel bad that she'd rejected him. She let out a long sigh and let her barrowed helmet slip down over her eyes.

"Hey, Snotlout, where's your helmet?" Fishlegs tipped his head down to stare at Snotlout's bare head. Snotlout just grunted. Tuffnut's ugly mug popped up next to Tiny and snatched the helmet off her head.

"Hey, why's the runt got your helmet?" He drawled, putting his elbow on the top of her head and using her as an arm rest. Tiny was so angry she was gnashing her teeth (Something her Mother had taught her never to do). Snotlout glanced up at Tuffnut and rolled his eyes. He looked…very tired. Like he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep that night. Tiny hadn't realized it, but he'd been looking like this for a while now. She tipped her head to one side and studied his face. He had big purple circles under his eyes.

Astrid snapped to attention at the mention of Tiny and the helmet. She'd been standing in classic pout-mode: arms crossed, head down, lower lip stuck out, eyebrows furrowed. She was no doubt pouting about Tiny still being at training. But now her eyes were focused on the tarnished hat, blazing an icy blue.

"Yeah, Snotlout. Why DOES the runt have your helmet?" Her words were short and loud, as if she was trying not to shout them. She was addressing Snotlout, but her eyes didn't move. Tiny almost shivered; it felt like the temperature had gone down.

Snotlout knew this would be coming, but he hadn't thought it would be so hard to say it right. He wasn't a very articulate person, as Vikings often aren't, and anyway he could think to say it, it would come out sounding wrong. For a few moments, he thought it might be easier just to revert back to his old ways, and come up with some clever lie about how Tiny had stolen it from him, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He'd just apologized for making her life a living hell, he couldn't go back now. But he had his pride; he couldn't come right out and defend her, as much as he felt it was necessary. So he came up with the best thing he could think of.

"She's not a runt." He mumbled.

"What?" Astrid tore her gaze from the helmet to stare at the boy. "What was that?"

"I mean, look at her. Even an idiot can tell she's gotten stronger. And a little taller." Tiny took the momentary pause to grab the helmet from Tuffnut and mash it down onto her head. Her Mother had just walked up to the stadium surrounding the arena, and Tiny didn't want her to catch a glimpse of the cut on her head. She'd flip out.

"It's true," Hiccup put in, looking uncertain if he was allowed to speak up. Astrid didn't take any notice to him. Tiny gave Hiccup a look that she hoped showed her gratitude.

"So, what, just because she may have gotten a little bit stronger, you just fall all over yourself defending her?" Astrid's voice broke in the middle of the sentence, and it scared the twins a little. Tiny saw them jump out of the corner of her eye. She was pretty pleased that Astrid was so mad, and the fury wasn't directed at her for once. She almost jumped it was so funny!

"I'm NOT defending her!" Snotlout raised his voice too.

"What do you call what you just did?"

"An observation!" They were shouting by this time, and it was getting less fun to watch. Every time either one of them shouted at each other, they'd take a few steps closer, until they were face to face. It was even a little bit scary, just because they were such powerful people. If it came to a fight, she didn't know who would win.

"All right, all right! Break it up, you two!" Mercifully, Gobber intervened just then, snatching the back of Astrid's shirt with his hook and dragging her backwards. "We're here to fight DRAGONS, not each other! Now fall in line, the Elder's watching today." The trainee's gazes followed to where Gobber was pointing, to an aged old lady, hunched over and leaning on a cane for support. She looked positively frail. "We'll review the Gronkle again today. No don't embarrass me! It's time to put all that training to use!"

Tiny took a big breath of air and reached for her specially made shield. Everyone was bracing themselves, watching intently as Gobber hobbled over to the door holding back the Gronkle. Astrid whipped her braid over her shoulder, whipping Snotlout in the face with it. Snotlout snarled a bit, but was too distracted to retaliate. Gobber was releasing the lock…

BOOM! As soon as the doors swung open, a gigantic fireball was hurled out into the arena. Everyone dodged it successfully, with not a singed hair on anyone. As usual, everyone broke up into pairs; Tuffnut and Ruffnut were circling around the dragon, trying to get behind it. Fishlegs seemed like he was trotting around the dragon, muttering to himself. Astrid charged the dragon head on, and Hiccup, surprisingly, followed. He seemed to be trying to prevent Astrid from hitting the Gronkle, blocking her axe with his shield. And that left Tiny on the far left of the arena and Snotlout on the far right. They exchanged a few nervous glances before Tiny decided the best course of action was to hit it from the side.

She withdrew her copper-hilted blade from the cover hanging from her belt and dashed to her left, swinging around and charging for the dragon's side. She knew there was a soft spot right under the Gronkle's left arm, where a few scales had been worn away that would be a perfect place to stab.

Tiny had only taken a few steps when the Gronkle, who had been being held down by Astrid, swung his giant head, throwing her off, and knocking the sword out of Tiny's hands. It went flying up in the air, hit the wire caging that covered the arena, and fell to the ground right beside Fishlegs, who let out a yelp and started dashing around in circles. The dragon roared in pain, a long gash had been cut on its sensitive nose, and its gaze zeroed in on Tiny. She had been expecting the dragon to spit a fire ball at her, which she'd been prepared for, but not for what it actually did. She raised her shield, waiting for the impact of the fireball, when the Gronkle, having been held captive for a number of long, long years and survived many a training session, swung around backwards and hit the shield with its stumpy, mace-like tail. The light wood didn't shatter, but was torn from her grasp.

It was then that the Gronkle's gaze met Tiny's. Its big yellow eyes didn't show fury, or anger, or vengeance. It showed sadness, a depressingly sorrowful sadness. Tiny's mouth hung open and she let out a wail. She felt such great pity for the dragon then, and for every dragon she'd fought in the past weeks. Even when she'd seen Hiccup and his Nightfury playing together, she'd never once thought that dragons could feel like humans. What a selfish thought, because it was quite obvious this Gronkle didn't want to fight, it didn't want to hurt anyone, but was only protecting itself.

"I-I'm sorr-"Tiny started, and reached out her hand. But in the split second she let her guard down, the look in the dragon's eyes vanished, only to be replaced with the glazed gaze it had worn before. Its mouth opened, the depth glowing red, and Tiny knew what was coming next. Somewhere far off, she heard a terrible screeching, her Mother, and someone yelling at her to run. But she couldn't run, it was too late.

'Why does this keep happening to me? This never happens to Astrid!' she thought, and squeezed her eyes shut just as the flames started lapping from the Gronkle's lips. The heat was unbearable, and she hadn't even been hit yet! But the funny thing was, even after the customary shriek the Gronkle gave as it shot the fireball, Tiny didn't get burned. She didn't feel a thing. She peeped open her eyes and looked up, only to see Snotlout keeping the flames at bay with his shield.

It had only taken a microsecond for the Gronkle to shoot, but it had felt like an eternity to Tiny. So many thoughts had run through her mind, how could it have been so quick? And how was Snotlout able to jump in and save her? It didn't seem possible.

"What are you doing? Run, stupid!" Snotlout barked. Tiny stumbled backwards and scrambled for her shield. It was laying a few feet away, slightly charred but otherwise okay. Once she had the leather strap gripped firmly with both her hands, she turned back to Snotlout.

"What now?" She called as the dragon advanced on him. Snotlout reached for his belt and tossed her a little blade.

"Stab it! Stab it anywhere! Just get it away from me!" Tiny caught the blade, but wasn't able to move. Stab it? She couldn't, not anymore. It didn't want to fight anymore, so why would she give it any reason to retaliate.

"I-I can't! Snotlout, I can't!" She whimpered. Snotlout shot her a poisoned glance.

"What do you mean you can't? It's going to kill me!" The Gronkle shot another fireball, and the distracted Snotlout was sent tumbling to the ground. He let out a scream as the dragon opened its jaws to snap him up. Tiny watched in horror as Snotlout was about to be eaten!

"HIYAAHH!" Astrid came flying out of nowhere at the last second, axe in hand, and smashed it down on the Gronkle's head. Tiny cringed as its skull made a sickening thud and its head smacked against the ground. Snotlout was as pale as a ghost, but grinning a bit. Astrid stood and sneered at Tiny, who was still standing, knock-kneed a few feet away. "I knew it. When push comes to shove, the weak are weeded out." Tiny tried to defend herself, but all that came out of her mouth was a gush of air. Astrid just laughed.

"What're ya doin'!" Gobber shouted, waving his arms. The Gronkle had gotten up and staggered away, glancing over its shoulder nervously at Astrid. The sad look had returned to its eyes, and Tiny had the sneaking suspicion she was the only one who had noticed it. "Get after it!" After one more sneer, Astrid skipped away after the dragon, who was now turning its attention on Hiccup. Tiny scurried over to Snotlout, still on the ground.

"Are you alright?" She asked, not sure what to do now. Snotlout shook his head and stood up, brushing away Tiny's hands, which were reaching out to help him up.

"I'm fine; where's that blade?" He replied, staring at something over Tiny's head. When she looked, there was nothing behind her; he was just avoiding her eyes.

"Uh, h-here." She handed him the knife. "I…I'm really sorry, I don't know what came over me…" Snotlout just snorted and shrugged.

"I'm fine, so it's okay." He looked away, and before he took off again after the dragon, he pressed the helmet down over Tiny's eyes. "The cut; your Mom'll see."

'Tiny, stop that nonsense right this second!' she shouted at herself in her head. 'Get your head back in the game! You almost died! Don't be entertaining these stupid ideas about Snotlout!' But she couldn't help it! How many times had it been now that he'd saved her from certain death? That was two, and who knew how many more times it would have to happen before Tiny realized what was going on. 'How could I be so backwards?'

Tiny shook her head to clear it. She needed to stop drifting off in her own thoughts, when fighting dragons, it was always helpful to be fully conscious. She whipped her head back and forth, taking in the scene. The dragon was charging Hiccup, who was pulling something from his pocket. Astrid was hot on its heels, swinging that axe without caution. The twins were both down for the count; it looked like they'd been taken out of the fight by a fireball. Fishlegs was cowering, as usual, and Snotlout wasn't far behind Astrid. But, just as soon as she'd realized what was happening, it was over. Just like that, the Gronkle had dropped down on its back in front of Hiccup. Was it…wagging its tail! Hiccup was rubbing something near its mouth…Tiny thought it was that grass, but she couldn't be sure. Astrid had stopped short behind it, Axe still in the air, a look of uncontrolled fury on her face.

Tiny almost laughed, if she wasn't so muddled up with her own thoughts. As Gobber waved his hand over Astrid's head, the Elder shook her head, and Astrid's face fell into a crumpled scowl. When Gobber waved his hook over Hiccup, thought, the Elder smiled and nodded, and it was finally over. Training was over, and killer of the Nightmare had been chosen. Tiny hadn't been expecting Hiccup to win, but, Hiccup was a strange boy, and anything could happen to him.

"We have a winner!" Gobber called into the stands, and the Vikings above broke into cheers. Stoick was cheering the loudest of all, clearly just as surprised as the rest of the Village. Tiny scanned the faces for her parents, and finally stopped when the angry face of Hermilda popped up near the back. Her eyes were red and puffy, she'd been crying, obviously. Tiny was almost afraid to confront her again; she really did like to live, even if her life wasn't all that great.

"It won't be so bad." Tiny didn't jump this time; she was actually pretty used to Snotlout popping up every so often; he'd been doing that a lot lately. "My Dad yells at me all the time." Tiny rolled her eyes.

"Somehow, that seems just like you." She said, shoving him with her shoulder. She let out a big breath and took a few steps towards the gate. Everyone was leaving now, and Snotlout and her where the only ones left in the arena. Pausing, she thought to herself 'If you don't say it now, you'll never have another chance!' She nodded slightly to herself, just to steady her nerves, and spun back around.

"Snotlout, thank-" But as soon as she had built up enough resolve to thank him, he'd already disappeared. He was nowhere in sight. "Great. The one time I actually want the oaf around, he leaves!"


	9. Chapter 9: Don't Need to be Told Twice

**Chapter Nine**

Tiny knew it was coming. Her Mother never let anything die.

"Thauktin, I just don't understand it! You have never, EVER, shown even the tiniest interest in dragon fighting!" Hermilda's hair was unbraided and had frizzed up around her head like a giant puffball. Her hair often did this when she was stressed or upset. "Why now? Why, Thauktin, why? You gave your poor Mother a heart attack today; you were almost KILLED by that Gronkle!" She waved her hands around her head. Tiny was sitting in one of the chairs in their main room, shrinking farther and farther down into it. With every word out of Hermilda's mouth, Tiny felt even tinier.

"Mom, listen, it's not about the dragons! I could care less it's just-"

"Then why do it! Why would you disobey us and go to training!"

"You never even told me there was training." Tiny put in, pouting. "So, technically, you never told me NOT to go." Hermilda was red in the face at this, realizing her fatal loophole.

"Well, we gave you orders to do as Baggie said, and you SNUCK OUT, right under the poor old woman's nose!" Tiny just snorted at this and turned around in the chair. She couldn't even speak about that old hag. She had let Tiny go, even encouraged her to go, and then turned right around and tattled to her to her parents! Some friend she was.

"Thauktin Leila Rutharia, you will NOT turn your back on your Mother!" Her Mother roared. Freid was sitting in the corner of the room, rubbing his temples. He hated when Hermilda was angry, it just made more problems for him.

"Dear, please. I don't think it's that big of a d-"

"ARRRGGG!" Tiny screeched in shock as her Mother launched herself across the room at her Father and tackled him to the ground. They were wrestling and shouting and punching, and Tiny was a little scared, to say the least. This was actually a pretty normal occurrence for Vikings, especially in the Rutharia household. But the fury didn't last long, her Mother collapsed into sobs almost as suddenly as she'd uttered her battle-cry.

"Oh, Freid! I just don't want Thauktin to get hurt!" She wailed while Freid patted her on the back. Tiny pushed the helmet further down onto her forehead. This would be a VERY bad time for Hermilda to discover the gash. "What am I going to do when she moves out! She's my baby!"

"Oh, Hermilda. You knew this was going to happen. I knew it for sure, she's a Rutharia, isn't she?" He smiled and winked at Tiny. "They all have to leave the nest sometime."

"I'm not leaving, Mom." Tiny spoke up. "I just, I didn't want to be so useless anymore." She shuffled her feet and waited for her Mother to respond. Hermilda looked up and wiped her nose on her sleeve.

"Oh, Thauktin, you have never been useless!"

"All the other kids made fun of me, and I just…I wanted to prove myself to them."

"What?" Freid looked up with a stony expression. "Who was making fun of you? I'll kill them!"

"It's not important anymore, Dad." She held up her hands to her Dad, who she had no doubt would actually slaughter any one she mentioned. "No one makes fun of me now. Well, not for being useless, not anymore. Don't you guys see? I LIKE training! And, I'm really not half bad at it." At this, her parents looked at each other and sighed. Hermilda stood up and brushed herself off, then swept Tiny up in another bone-crushing hug.

"My darling Thauktin, you are NOT useless! And now that I'm back, you don't ever have to prove anything to anyone again! You don't have to train anymore, you don't have to-"

"Wait, what?" Tiny wiggled out of the hug to stare at her Mother. "What do you mean, not go back to training?"

"Oh, well, obviously, I'm not going to let you go back, not after the performance today! That Gronkle was this close!" She held up her hands, very close to one another, to show how close the Gronkle had gotten to Tiny. "But from now on, your Father and I will always be here to keep a closer eye on you!" Tiny staggered back a few steps. Freid put his hand on his wife's shoulder.

"Um, Hermy, I don't think that's what either of us meant…" But Hermilda just swatted his hand away.

"Oh, Freid! Why don't you just catch up with the other men? I'll stay here with Thauktin!" But Tiny didn't want to stay at home with her Mother. She made a dash for the front door, and almost made it, but her Mother caught her. The woman was fast; she was the one Tiny got her speed from.

"Mom! Let me go! I don't want to be here forever!"

"No! You're staying here, and you will like it!"

The sun was going down. Tiny sat by her window, head in her hands, Snotlout's helmet in her lap. Her Mother had her in her room under lock and key, and she couldn't get out. Even her window was locked up, from the outside so she couldn't even pick the lock. She hated this. Just when she thought her Mom was seeing things her way, everything went wrong! Why had she thought things would go right for her? In a lifetime of wrongs, there are no rights!

A few birds sat on a stunted tree right outside the window. They were dark gray birds, sort of like crows, only smaller, and they could sing. Not that Tiny could hear them, but somehow, it calmed her down just to look at them. They were all sitting on the same branch, not a foot away. If the window wasn't locked, Tiny would have been able to reach out and touch them.

They were very serene birds, not moving a muscle, until the branches under them started to sway. First, it was just a slight movement, and it didn't seem to bother them, but the shaking steadily got worse, until the whole tree was rocking back and forth and the birds leapt up into the sky. Tiny watched them go, and then turned her attention to the tree. What was making it shake so badly? She squinted and tried to see into the shadows, when Snotlout's face popped up right next the window pane. Tiny fell backwards and crashed into her bed, falling backwards over it.

"Let me in!" Snotlout shouted through the glass.

"I can't! It's locked!" Tiny shouted back, shrugging her shoulders.

"Thauktin! What are you shouting about?" Her Mother called from downstairs. Tiny cringed and shouted "NOTHING!" back, before turning back to Snotlout, who was swaying dangerously on the branch.

"What are you doing?" She mouthed, pressing her hands to the pane. Snotlout grabbed the window sill to steady himself.

"Why is this locked?" He mouthed back, pointing to the big steel lock Hermilda had had smithed and placed on the window. Tiny sighed and shook her head. How could she explain without shouting? She couldn't mouth everything. Snotlout seemed to understand, and took something from his pocket. Tiny looked closer to see that it was a long, thin needle, probably made from a bone. She tipped her head and stared at him, as if to ask what he was going to do with it. Snotlout cracked a crooked grin and started to tinker with the lock. Tiny watched as he started to pick the lock, and almost gasped as it clicked open.

Tiny couldn't hide her delight as Snotlout crashed into the room, causing a stack of books to go cascading to the floor. She stooped to help him up, but again he just brushed her away.

"Ug. Why you can't just have a one-story house like every other Viking in Berk," He grumbled, dusting himself off.

"Why are you here?" Tiny tried to make it sound nonchalant, but she was smiling. "Feel the need to come in here and crush all my books?" She pointed to the books, strewn about. Snotlout looked around for a moment, appraising her room.

"Hmm. Not like I thought it would look like." He said, more to himself than to Tiny. "It's pretty…normal in here. I mean, except for the insane amount of books you have in here." He picked up the nearest book, one about Odin, Thor and the rest of the Gods. "When do you have time to read all of these?"

"Have you forgotten? I spent most of my childhood hauled up in here, hiding from you and your cronies." She crossed her arms. "So, WHAT are you doing here?"

"Oh, yeah, well. That." He scratched the back of his head. "I wanted to give you…" He turned back to the window and reached for something. Tiny peered around his shoulder to see that her helmet was hanging from a branch in the tree. Snotlout grabbed it and shoved it towards Tiny. "Your helmet."

Tiny took it, and looked at it in astonishment. "You went down and got it?" Snotlout had knocked it off her head that morning and over a cliff, into the ocean. She looked back up at Snotlout, who, now that she noticed, had wet hair, and smelled like salt. "Why'd you get this?"

"I kind need my helmet back." He pointed past Tiny at his Hemet that now stood on the floor.

"Oh. Well…here." Tiny picked it up for him and handed it to him. She knew she should have expected as much, but she still felt…disappointed. It must have shown on her face, because Snotlout turned a little pink and stuttered.

"And, well, I thought…you might want yours back. I just thought…well…I guess I sort of owed it to you." Tiny twirled her helmet in her hands for a bit, saying nothing. She felt bad for rejecting Snotlout's apology earlier, and for not thanking him for saving her life twice, AND saving her helmet, twice.

"Listen, Snotlout. I feel sort of bad for the way I talked to you earlier. I know you're sorry. And I guess I'm-"Just then, there was a knock at her door. Tiny and Snotlout froze, both staring at the door. Tiny was sweating bullets; there was almost no way it was anyone else but Hermilda! When she saw Snotlout, in Tiny's room, wrong conclusions would be jumped to, and that was the LAST thing Tiny wanted.

"Thauktin? You're in there, right?" Tiny almost cried with relief when her Father spoke from the other side of the door. "Can I come in? I want to talk to you." But just because it wasn't her mother, didn't mean she was out of the woods yet. Tiny shoved Snotlout over to the window, placing a finger to her lips to motion for silence. Snotlout looked rather displeased to be pushed out a window, but Tiny had no other choice. He half-jumped, half-fell into the tree, and scooted into the shadows before Tiny shut the window and tried to make the lock look less-broken.

"Uh, yeah Dad, I'm here. You can come in." She sat down on the chair next to her window as Freid opened her door. He seemed a bit confused by all the books laying about, but seemed not to want to ask.

"I think we need to talk about all this." He said, sitting down on Tiny's bed and almost crushing it.

"About what?" She scooted over to sit right in front of the lock, so her Father wouldn't see it wasn't locked.

"Thauktin, I know you want to fight dragons. And I understand why. Hell, I'd love for you to be out there with the other kids! It would make me so proud to see you take down a Zippleback or a Nightmare, or even, Thor provided, a Nightfury!" His eyes were glazed over, as if he was watching the whole event play out in his head. "But, when your Mother makes up her mind…there's just no changing it." He shook his head, breaking the image of a dragon-fighting Tiny in his head.

"I guess." Tiny hung her head a bit. "It's not fair. She fights dragons!"

"That's a different matter entirely! Your Mother isn't a petite lady! But, uh, don't tell her I said that." He chuckled nervously. "But you Thauktin! You could be so many other things! Why chose the one job that was made for someone the exact opposite of you?" This really boiled Tiny's blood. She stood up and glared at Freid.

"You're saying I couldn't do it? Even after today?"

"Thauktin, you say that like today turned out good." He sighed and stood up. "I was there, Thauktin. I saw how close that Gronkle came to….torching you. Today was NOT a victory."

"Is this supposed to make me feel better!" Tiny shouted. Freid jumped as she yelled at him. He was unaware that such a big noise could come from someone so small!

"I guess I'm not doing a very good job at this Father stuff." He hung his head and moved for the door. "I'm sorry, Thauktin. But what your Mother says, goes." Tiny was on the verge of tears. She hadn't cried in so long, the emotions all rushed out of her at once. Anger at her Mother for not letting her prove herself, disgust at her Father for not fighting harder for her rights, disappointed in herself for not being good enough to even prove to them that she was able to fight dragons!

"FINE JUST RUN BACK LIKE A COWARD!" She screamed, her fists balled up by her sides. "I hate this! I hate this!" She flung herself on her bed and screamed into her pillow. "AAAHHHHRRGGG!"

Snotlout crept back in through the window, a little scared by Tiny's sudden outburst. He listened as Tiny's Father trumped down the stairs, before he spoke.

"Tiny? Tiny, are you-" He walked over and put his hand on her shoulder. "Don't listen to him, Tiny. He doesn't know what he's talking about! You're a great fighter. Today, you were just distracted! He should have seen you last week, when you clobbered that Zippleback! Or when you punched that Gronkle! Or when-" He was cut-off midsentence as Tiny jumped up and hit him in the face.

"Stop calling me that! My name's not Tiny!" She shouted, not caring if Freid heard. "My name is Thauktin! Thauktin!" Snotlout's lip curled up in a snarl and he rubbed his cheek where she's slapped him. He opened his mouth to shout back, but he seemed to melt before any words could escape his mouth. Tiny couldn't help but notice the worry lines above his eyes as he frowned.

"Sorry. My bad. Sorry, Thauktin." He backed up, like he was afraid she's slap him again. Tiny looked at her hand, which she hadn't realized was still raised in the air, and lowered it. She really did hate all this. Every time she tried to apologize or thank Snotlout, something happened to ruin it all. And now she was crying! She'd never live it down, he'd hold this over her head forever.

"Just get out!" She sobbed and turned her back. "Go away! I don't want to see you or anyone else ever again!" She wasn't really mad at Snotlout, but she just needed some time alone to sort things out. Snotlout and his annoying babble never helped anyone think. Snotlout left without making a sound, and closed the window behind him. Tiny waited a few minutes, just to make sure he wasn't still there, and looked back around. He had left, but on the window-sill, there sat his helmet, next to hers. He'd left it there, weather intentionally or accidentally, Tiny didn't know, but she grabbed it and hugged it to her chest without thinking.

"I just wanted to fit in! I just wanted them to leave me alone, if nothing else!" She wailed. "But now it's ruined! I've lost my chance at everything!"


	10. Chapter 10: Finally Free

**Chapter Ten**

Tiny was running. She didn't know where, and she didn't know why, but she was running. Adrenaline coursed through her veins, endorphins making her giddy. She almost smiled as she flew over the ground, feet barely skimming the dust. But she didn't. She knew that if she smiled, she'd think everything would be alright, and, if that happened, she'd go back home.

No. She didn't want to go back home! She would never go back there, and that's why she was running. She'd come up with a plan, a rather smart one if she did say so herself. She would find Hiccup, wherever he was (he wasn't at home or the blacksmith's, she'd already checked) and ask her to fly her away somewhere, maybe the Bog-Burglar tribe. They seemed…decent. She knew he's be running away soon; she wasn't blind. She'd seen the look on his face as he was chosen to kill the Nightmare. He wouldn't do it, and was probably already packing things up to leave. So, she'd just go with him. She didn't need to bring much besides the clothes on her back, just a spare coat and her helmet. The helmet was actually pretty cumbersome since it wasn't perched on her head. There was no room though, because Snotlout's helmet was already there.

She did feel some remorse for leaving. Everyone would think of her as a coward for running away, and the blame would most likely fall on her parents. Hermilda definantly deserved the blame; it was entirely her fault, but Freid was innocent. Sure, he was bending to the power of his wife, but he was still a good guy. A little dim, but good. And then there was Snotlout. Tiny felt sad that she had to go before she'd had a chance to say she was sorry. She felt devastatingly sad! He was a meat-head, and stank, and wasn't all that bright and often said the wrong things, and oh how the list went on! But towards the end there, it seemed like he'd been making the effort to try and…be nice? Probably a foreign concept to the boy and no-doubt difficult. He'd lost the potential admiration of Astrid from being nice to Tiny, which Tiny knew was also important to him. Unfortunately the boy was smitten with the blond terror, but what could you expect from a dim-witted Viking? She WAS pretty after all, Tiny couldn't deny that. And as much as she hated to admit, Astrid was VERY smart!

Tiny let out a raged sigh. What was she doing? Her running slowed as she approached Toothless's crater, and she began to doubt herself. She was running away from her problems, literally, and that was one thing she'd never done before. Her father had always told her "Thauktin, you're a Viking! Face your grievances head on, like the warrior you are!" Empty words from him, but Tiny had always lived by them! Why was she running away now, when she'd been trying so desperately these past few weeks to prove that she really was a Viking? She stopped to catch her breath right above the crater. No. She was a Rutharia! Even if that hadn't meant anything 'till now, she'd MAKE it mean something! She'd live PAST the shallow expectations of her parents! She WAS a Viking1 She was!

But there was still one little problem. After the disastrous training session, Tiny was unsure if she even COULD Kill a dragon. Or, the better word here is WOULD. That Gronkle had really spoken to her (figuratively, of course) and, she didn't know if she met a dragon in battle, if she'd have the guts to kill it. Tiny shook her head and rubbed her temples. Oh, you dunce! What are you going to do now?

She didn't have time to debate herself, though; she was startled from her thoughts by the sudden rush of wind from Toothless's wings and the screaming of Astrid. Tiny whipped her head around to see the dragon pick Astrid up right of the ground and carry her to the top of a nearby pine tree. Tiny was pretty blank by this time; her head hurt from the conflicting thoughts, but at any other time this would have been hilarious.

'So, Tiny, what are you going to do?' she thought to herself. Great, even the voice in her head called her Tiny. She tore her eyes away from the top of the tree to stare at her hands, which were clenching and relaxing at regular intervals. She had two options now. One; yell up at Hiccup and get him to fly her to some far off land, where she'd have some sort of chance at become a dragon-slaying Viking. Maybe. Two; go back to Berk and try to straighten everything out. Option one seemed easiest, but she couldn't help feeling she'd regret it. Option two seemed like a breath-takingly large amount of work, and only had about a fifty-fifty chance of working, but…Tiny knew in the long-run she'd thank herself for choosing it. So, with a last glance at the top of the tree and at her last chance of making it off the frozen rock called Berk, she turned around and headed home.

Well, that's not really the truth. The thought of climbing back up to her window which her Mother thought was locked made Tiny cringe, and dragged her feet back. She made every excuse to slow down, until it was so dark, she couldn't even see her hand in front of her face. 'Now what? You ganna sleep outside?' She was growing quite tired of her inner-self constantly jeering sarcastically at her and wished she could shut up. But she did have a point; she couldn't spend all night outside, so she reluctantly started back up towards her house. On the way, though, she did see something rather interesting. Baggie was sitting outside her house, rocking in her rocking chair, and petting something sitting in her lap. Tiny was curious, to say the least, and crept a few feet forward, careful to stay hidden in the shadows.

"Tomorrow should be interesting, don't you think Sandy?" She croaked at the thing, which seemed to croak back. It was small, but Tiny couldn't really see it. She guessed it was some sort of cat, from its yellow eyes and tail. "That Hiccup lad doesn't have the gall to kill the dragon; both you and me know it!" She laughed once, and the thing looked up at her. "Oh, don't give me that look! Not all people are as accepting of your kind as me! You're just lucky I'm too old to chase you off! You eat all my food!" Tiny was right next to the house now, right up against the wall. She peered around the corner, trying to see what Baggie was talking to, and almost gasped as the moon moved out from behind a layer of clouds and cast a light on Baggie's porch. It wasn't a cat Baggie was crooning to; it was Terrible Terror!

Tiny had known it all along; there WAS a Terrible Terror living in Baggie's house! She'd heard it scurrying about at night, she'd seen its tail in the rafters, and Baggie's floor was unusually warm for hard-wood! She'd even dreamt about Baggie and the nuisances! But somehow, this didn't surprise Tiny much. Baggie seemed like she was just crazy enough to keep a dragon for a pet. Tiny idly wondered if this was what Hiccup would grow into.

"Thauktin, oh Thauktin, you never where good at hiding. You'd think since you're so small…" Baggie cackled at her. Tiny, for a moment, didn't dare move, but after a few seconds, revealed herself. She stepped into the moonlight and walked up to Baggie with a hard face. This was after all the treacherous woman who'd sold her out to her parents.

"What're you doing with a Terrible Terror, Baggie?" She said through clenched teeth. Baggie's smile widened, and she patted the dragon on the head.

"Oh, never you mind, Dearie. Sandy's an old friend."

"Why'd you sell me out?" Ting asked bluntly, folding her arms in front of herself. Baggie's smile drooped a bit, but she just chuckled.

"Thauktin, you really didn't think you could hide that forever, did you now?" Tiny leaned against the side of the house and scowled.

"You could have at least owned up to the fact that you encouraged me."

"And what would that have done for you?" Baggie heaved a sigh and stood up. Sandy leapt from Baggie's lap and scurried under the porch. "Dear, you need to learn that the easiest path…is not always the easiest path." Tiny just stared at the woman. She knew Baggie was crazy but this was just ridiculous.

"Baggie, that makes absolutely no sense." Baggie just sighed again.

"Thauktin, it makes more sense than anything I've ever said. Just because you don't understand it….but I guess that's the price one pays for being young." She reached out and patted Tiny on the shoulder. "Just think it over. One day, you'll understand." Baggie tapped the side of her head once, before heading back into her house. Tiny wanted to ask Baggie what she had meant, but knew she wouldn't get a straight answer, just another riddle. 'If it's the easiest path…then that's just it! It's the easiest path!' She thought as she walked to her own house. 'Baggie's off her rocker…literally! Don't listen to her, she's just an old senile!'

**(Page break)**

Sunlight filtered into Tiny's bedroom through her window as she woke the next morning. She stretched, feeling sore from the climb back up to her room. She'd fallen out of that stupid tree three times before she'd finally made it through her window; she didn't know how Snotlout made it look so easy! Her mind was still groggy as she trudged down the stairs and into her front room. Both her parents were sitting at their table, giving each other hard stairs. Hermilda's face was tear-streaked and puffy, and Freid's face was tired-looking and wrinkly. They must have had a fight last night while Tiny had been sneaking around.

Both heads snapped up as Tiny entered the room, and a wave of nausea crashed over her. She hoped to the Gods this wasn't going to be another episode like last night! She eyed her parents cautiously as she approached, grabbing a stool and sitting down. Freid gave a weak smile and winked at her, and Tiny wondered what was going to happen.

"Thauktin," Her Mother huffed, scratching her untrimmed nails on the table as she spoke. "Your Father and I have discussed it…and…" She took a few short staggered breaths before continuing. "And we have decided that…oh, Freid, you tell her!" She hid her head in her hands and started sobbing. Tiny just rolled her eyes. Honestly, why was her Mother so bipolar? Freid patted Tiny on the shoulder, and his grin grew, tenfold.

"We know training's already at an end, but your Mother here wanted to keep ya home all day and have ya miss the big fight between Hiccup and the Nightmare!" Hermilda flinched at the word 'Nightmare'. "But I said No! This will be a great learning experience for you, him being of…um, small stature. Like yerself!" Tiny frowned at her Father, before she fully realized what he was saying.

"Wait. You mean-"

"Now listen here, you stubborn lamb! Most, if not all the dragons you'll face in your lifetime have picked their teeth with larger toothpicks than you. We aren't sayin' ya should go out and try to kill the first thing ya see." Well, there would be no danger of that; Tiny wasn't going to be killing ANYTHING anytime soon. "But…we've come to realize that we can't keep ya here forever. And even if we tried, ya'd find a way out." As Hermilda's head was still buried in her hands, Freid winked again at Tiny, who knew instantly that he knew where she'd been last night. He didn't seem to care much, though, and Tiny wasn't worried he'd squeal on her; she and her Dad, despite the little spat they'd gotten into, were on much the same level. "We just want ya ter be ready if…if ya ever need ter protect yerself." Tiny almost leapt out of her chair, she was so happy! Finally, she'd gotten what she'd wanted! Hermilda finally raised her head and gave a weary smile.

"Oh, honey! You know you'll always be my little Thauktin!" Oh, the irony. "And I'll always be trying to protect you! I'm…I'm just not ready for you to goooo!" She broke out in more sobs, and Tiny patted her on the back.

"Mom, I'm not going anywhere. I'm still here, you know. Why do you keep thinking I'm leaving somewhere?"

"But…b-but that helmet!" Hermilda peeked out from under her arms and pointed at Snotlout's helmet, which was still resting on Tiny's head. Tiny hadn't realized it, but she must have fallen asleep with it still on, and forgotten to take it off before she came downstairs. She could feel the blush creeping onto her cheeks. "That's n-not the helmet we gave you! It's…it's…it's that Jorgenson boy's!"

"I can…I can explain!" Tiny waved her hands in front of her, as if to wave away any jumped-to conclusions. "Y'see, it was yesterday morning, and I, well, I wasn't looking where I was going and ran into Snotlout. We were on the stairs, the ones that lead up to the arena, and when I smacked into him, my helmet few off my head and into the ocean below the cliff! He just gave this to me so I, um….well, he just gave it to me because!" She stomped her foot once, to close the matter. But as we stated before; Hermilda never let anything die.

"Oh, r-right! I'm just supposed to believe that some…some boy! Oh, I can't even think about it! I'm s-supposed to believe that some boy just GAVE away his helmet? F-freid, you're a boy," She glared at Freid, who chuckled.

"Why, yes. I think so. Thanks fer noticing."

"What does giving away a helmet mean, when a boy gives it to a girl?"

"Well…If their still small…It's just plain cute! Remember when Thauktin gave 'er helmet ter Gran? Oh, that was just adorable!" He slapped his knee and laughed.

"Freid! Stay on topic here!"

"Oh, right. Well," He rubbed his chin. This wasn't good. Nothing was ever good when Freid felt the need to rub his chin. "It used to be an old custom to give yer helmet to yer beloved, ter, ya'know, protect 'em from harm an' what-not. But that hasn't been practiced since Great Great Gran's time. Nowadays, helmets 'er just passed from Father to son, Mother to Daughter." Hermilda snorted and turned her green gaze on Tiny again.

"Beloved, Thauktin! It that…that abomination of a boy your **beloved**?" She spat as she said the last word, literally, which Tiny found revolting. She didn't understand how she was related to these people.

"What? Snotlout? MY beloved? Ha!" She stuttered, hoping the blush hadn't returned, or at least hadn't gotten worse. "You must all be kidding! As if I'd ever fall for that block of a boy! I'd never, EVER-"

"Thauktin, Thauktin! We get it, all right?" Freid patted her shoulder again and smiled. "Besides, we got no business in yer affairs, right Hermilda?" Hermilda collapsed into wails again. "So, like I've been tryin' ter tells ya fer ages: Go to the big battle, alright? Just go and be careful." Tiny gave her Father the biggest smile she could muster, and dashed outside, almost forgetting her Boots on the way out. There was no way she was going to miss this! Like Baggie had said, this was going to be a fight to remember!"


	11. Chapter 11: Confrontation

**Ug! I really hate this chapter, but I need to move it out of the way to get on with the story! After this I can get to the real action stuff!**

**I'm starting to like Tiny less and less. She's just evolving ino something I don't like at all. I'm afraid I've been making her too Mary-sue-ish, and I'm POSITIVE I've been portraying Snotlout out of character. But….I guess I'm just a slave to my own girly whims. Oh well. **

**Read and review, please and thank you!**

**Chapter Eleven**

Tiny stood outside the ornately designed wooden doors of the Jorgenson family. They were made of some sort of red wood, something that was very very scarce on the island, and it had a snake-like dragon painted on it. Tiny wondered why they needed such a fancy door; her door was plain and brown, and not even Stoick's was this grand. But like many thing Snotlout did, it didn't really make sense, and Tiny just rolled her eyes at it.

Tiny was waiting for someone to open the door, she'd knocked a couple of times, and had wanted to talk to Snotlout. Her previous efforts to both apologize to him and thank him had all been thwarted by forces out of her control, and she knew before she did anything else, she had to get this over with.

Snotlout's father could be seen roaming the village almost every day. He was Stoick's brother and besides Gobber, he seemed to be Stoick's right hand man. He looked almost identical to Snotlout (or rather, Snotlout looked identical to him) and a little like his brother, but Tiny saw no resemblance between the sons. It was hard to believe they were cousins. While everyone knew Spitelout (what an original name, right?), not many people in Berk had seen his wife. Of course she had friends of her own, but she didn't leave the house much, and Tiny realized she's never seen the woman before. That was why she was a little taken aback when it was Mrs. Jorgenson who answered the door.

For all Tiny knew about Snotlout (which was not all that much) she would have guessed his mother to look…well, at least similar to him, but she was almost his exact opposite! She was short, a little pudgy, but she had a slim face and big green eyes. She had his nose, that was apparent, but her hair was blond (ish) and actually quite straight. She was only a few inches taller than Tiny, quite to the amusement of the latter, and had a kind face.

"May I help you?" She asked in a voice Tiny thought should belong to a singing bird. She liked this woman.

"Yeah, my name's Tin- er, Thauktin, you'know, Freid's kid?" Tiny couldn't help but call herself her own cruel nickname. Being addressed as Tiny for so long did that to you. It wasn't even that big of a stretch; her inner self called herself Tiny all the time.

"Yes, yes! Hermilda's daughter! I know of you!" She clapped her hands together and grinned. Tiny realized that she had the same crooked smile as Snotlout, but her teeth were stunningly straight.

"Is, um, Snotlout home?" Tiny peered around the woman, trying to see if Snotlout was in the room just behind her. "I need to talk to him" At this the woman glowed.

"You'know, my Snotlout has talked and talked about you!" his Mother gushed, patting Tiny on the shoulder. "The things he tells me! 'That Rutharia girl punched a Gronkle yesterday!'" She imitated Snotlout's voice. "'And today she was almost swallowed by a Nader!' You have quite the exciting life, don't you?" Tiny just shrugged and looked over her shoulder, up towards the arena. A lot of the villagers were climbing the steps, eager to watch the fight.

"Um, are you watching the fight today?" Tiny inquired, wondering why she was still at home at all, since she was starting to get the feeling Snotlout wasn't there.

"Me? A fight? Oh no, no, not me! I can't stand that brutish sport! But," She tapped her chin and stared off into the distance. "Snotlout's probably there by now. Didn't you say you needed to talk to him?" Tiny nodded and smiled.

"Oh, that's great! Thanks, Mrs. Jorgenson!" She turned on her feel, and with a wave behind her, she was off.

"Please, call me Amarna!" Snotlout's mother called after her. Tiny liked Amarna; she was nice and cheerful and giggly. In short, everything Snotlout was not.

The climb up to the arena took no time at all; her feet flew over the steps, barely touching them. The cheering coming from above was deafening; everyone was so anxious to see the chief's son spill the blood of his first dragon. Tiny was excited too, but not for the same reasons. She was going to set everything right. She'd get this terrible weight off her shoulders, and not to mention, she was anxious to see what Hiccup was going to do with the Nightmare. He certainly wasn't going to kill it, but…what else was there to do with it? He couldn't of already trained that one too…could he? Tiny reached the top of the cliff quickly and raced towards the crowd. She caught a glimpse of a very green-looking Hiccup, standing beside the gate and next to a very concerned looking Astrid. It cased tiny to stop and take a double take. Was that really Astrid…holding Hiccup's hand? It was like seeing a dragon grooming a sheep, or like a Viking, taking a bath! How, and when, did this happen? Tiny almost got lost in her thoughts, like she usually did, but knew she didn't have the luxury of time today. She wanted to find Snotlout before the fight began.

"Should be me down there." Tuffnut grumbled from Tiny's left. He was sitting on the ground next to his twin, who was looking smug. Tiny thought they would be where Snotlout was, but he was nowhere near them. Which was odd.

"Where's Snotlout?" She asked them. Both blond heads snapped up as she spoke, both sets of blue eyes blazing with dislike and question. Tiny felt like slinking off (as usual) but knew she'd never get anywhere that way, and stood her ground. Tuffnut looked back at his sister, who shrugged, and he stood up.

"Why d'you want to know?" he asked, towering over Tiny. She glowered back up at him, trying to look serious, but feeling like Jelly inside.

"I got a message from his mom, okay? She wanted me to tell him something." She lied smoothly. She wouldn't be telling them the truth anytime soon. Tuffnut backed off a bit and smirked.

"He's such a mamma's boy!" He grinned back at Ruffnut, who snorted with laughter. "Sure, yeah, he's that way." His arm jerked up and pointed at the other end of the arena's stadium. Tiny squinted, and thought she caught a glimpse of his pug-nose through the caging.

"Great, thanks." She nodded at the twins and dove back into the crowd. She was very pleasantly surprised when they didn't retaliate or go after her. So this was what being left alone felt like! The mass of Vikings was way too thick for Tiny's liking, and she was shoved around like a sardine in a school of fish.

"Watch it, Rutharia!" "Hey, watch where yer're going!" "Get out from under mah feet!" All these things and more were shouted at her as she scampered around the stadium, tracking down Snotlout. She tried not to be a bother, but it was hard. Snotlout was right around the corner, sulking by his father. Spitelout was standing close to Stoick, who was seated at the head of the stadium in the Chief's throne. She slowed as she approached them, and slunk around the chief and his associates.

"Snotlout, hey!" She whispered, now on his other side. He spun around, startled obviously, and Tiny waved him over.

"What?" He whispered back, not moving. Tiny frowned and waved him over again. He just shook his head.

"What is Thor's name are you doing that is so important!" she said. "I have to tell you something!"

"Fight's about to start!" He jabbed at the arena with his thumb. Like she didn't know.

"I know that! Just get over here!" This continued for a few minutes, until Tiny finally won the mostly-silent match and Snotlout trudged over. He didn't look all that happy, but he didn't look as sour as usual.

"What is it?"

"Here, you oaf." Tiny tossed him his helmet. She'd thought this would be a good way to start; plus, he'd wanted it back anyway. He looked a little dumbfounded as he caught it. "You left this at my house. You wanted it back, right?" Snotlout spun it around in his hands a few times. Tiny waited for him to reply, but he seemed to be a bit slow today, so while she was waiting, she peered down into the arena. The gates hadn't opened yet, but she could see Hiccup's silhouette on the other side of it. If you squinted, you could almost see his face, which Tiny knew must be something like the face he'd made the first day of training.

"Yeah, I guess I said that, didn't I?" Snotlout finally said, bringing Tiny back to reality. He looked blank now, expressionless. Tiny tapped her foot.

"Look, I've wanted to tell you this for a while, so just listen, okay?" She didn't know why, but she felt very irritable. "Than-"

"RAISE THE GATE!" Stoick bellowed behind Snotlout, and everyone cheered. Gobber saluted from down in the arena and went to go raise the gate. Tiny's mouth just hung open a little bit, and Snotlout's grin scowl returned as he turned away from her to watch the battle. Why, Gods, why! Was the entire universe just against her doing anything nice, ever! Every flipping time! She stood for a few moments, silently going through every insult she knew and screaming it in her head. And since she'd been tormented at the hands of Snotlout, she knew QUITE a few insults, and nasty ones at that.

She cooled down a bit and turned also to watch once Hiccup inched to the center of the arena. His green-look from before had vanished and had been replaced by a look of determination. Stoick and the other men were making comments about Hiccup under their breaths, about his weapon selection, his hat, how much he'd grown, ect. Tiny just wanted this business to be over so she could actually get a few minutes to speak to that idiot Snotlout.

The door holding back the Monstrous Nightmare was unbolted and the fiery beast burst out screeching. It leapt up onto the caging above it and started blasting fire around recklessly. Hiccup's knees where knocking together, but his face didn't change. Once the dragon had ceased its rampaging (which only happened once it had almost maimed a pair of children watching with eager eyes) it dropped down to the dirt floor to stare at Hiccup. She couldn't see the Nightmare's face, only Hiccup's, and as the Nightmare inched closer to him, Hiccup dropped the knife he's chosen, dropped his shield, and, seeing as that didn't calm the dragon, dropped his helmet as well. From her right, Stoick stood up and gasped.

"What's he doin'?" he asked anxiously, looking at Spitelout, who only shrugged. Down below, Hiccup had started to speak.

"We don't need to fight them!" He called up to the gathered Vikings, who all gasped in unison. Hiccup's hand was extended to the dragon, whose wings were down and tail had stopped twitching. "We don't need to fight," he repeated. "Just listen to me, okay? If you just show them that you're willing to train them-"

"Stop the fight," Stoick said hoarsely.

"We can work WITH them!" Hiccup's hand was almost on the Nightmare's nose. Stoick was blazing.

"STOP THE FIGHT!" he called, and out of nowhere, grabbed the hammer he had by his side and smashed it against the caging. The entire entity rattled and clashed, and the Nightmare was spooked. Instantly it was rearing up and trying to smash Hiccup beneath its feet. Tiny could only watch in horror as Hiccup scuttled away from the gigantic beast, barely escaping being crushed.

"HICCUP!" Someone shouted, though nobody could be sure who had said it. It was complete chaos! Mothers were trying to rush their children away; even grown men were trying to escape the scene. Astrid had somehow managed to wiggle into the arena, and was running alongside Hiccup. The Nightmare seemed slightly disoriented from all the noise around it, which would have thrown off its tracking skills, but it had no problem blasting fire at the skinny blond girl.

"Thauktin! C'mon!" Snotlout grabbed Tiny's wrist and yanked her back away from the giant caging just as the Nightmare's giant claws grabbed the metal and started climbing around the arena again. Tiny peeped over her shoulder at Snotlout, slightly pleased and a little weirded out that he'd called her Thauktin. It crossed her mind that this was a sad way to feel, because Thauktin was, in fact, her name. It was just so weird to hear him say Thauktin. She had to admit, it didn't exactly roll off the tongue.

"What? What are you staring at?" he demanded. Tiny blushed a little and made a point to look away, but said nothing. Snotlout exhaled loudly. "You told me to call you that, so I did. Gods, why are females so difficult!" Tiny smiled a bit at that, but the almost-adorable moment was shattered by the shrill screech that is always associated with the fire-blast of a Nightfury.

"NIGHTFURY!" Spitelout shouted as Toothless breezed over his head.

"Oh no, what is Toothless doing here?" Tiny whispered. The dragon burst through the iron cage as if it were nothing and landed on top of the Nightmare, who had Hiccup trapped under its foot. A humongous cloud of dust was thrown up, and nobody could see anything. Here and there a wing or claw broke the cloud, and a ferocious snarling filled the cliff-top. There was a sound like ripping metal, and the dust started to settle down, and Toothless could be seen standing between Hiccup and the Nightmare, one of the Nightmare's claws in his mouth.

Tiny was steadily being dragged backwards by Snotlout, and she wasn't happy about it one bit.

"Hey! What's the big idea! I want to know what's going to happen!" She shouted once they got to the stairs. Tiny dragged her heels, but was just no match for Snotlout. She hated to say it…but, unfortunately, the big lug WAS quite a bit stronger than her.

"This isn't ganna be good. We need to get out of here." Snotlout said, and Tiny whipped her head around, because there was something in Snotlout's voice she'd never heard before. It was fear; not in-the-moment hysterical fear like when he's been running from the Nader with her, and not the kind of fear he's shown when he'd been trying to scramble out of her window as not to be caught by Freid. No, this was genuine, rational, justifiable fear in his voice.

"W-what?" Tiny stuttered, letting herself be dragged again.

"How can you be calm!" He stopped and really looked at the girl. He didn't understand it. She was so much smaller than him, so much more defenseless. She didn't have any muscles, she was short and stringy and girly, so how was she not jumping out of her skin? "That was a WILD Nightfury! It was this close!" He held his hand up, thumb and forefinger about an inch apart to show how close the dragon had been. Tiny guessed she just hadn't noticed, but now that she thought about it, Toothless HAD gotten pretty close to her. "This isn't just a Gronkle or something, this is a NIGHTFURY! We've…we've never even seen one before!"

"You're sounding like my Mother" Tiny said, shrugging his other hand away. "And I just got AWAY from her." She crossed her arms. She knew why Snotlout was so afraid and why she wasn't. This was the first time he'd ever seen Toothless, and to him, it looked like a vicious man-eating beast. But Tiny knew Toothless would never hurt a human, for whatever reason, and had no fear of him whatsoever. "Snotlout, listen. Something big is going down…I just know! I want to remember this day when I'm eighty, if I ever get that old! We have to go back!" She actually really just wanted to see what was going to happen to Hiccup. She knew if he made it out okay of whatever was happening, she'd have a fighting chance at whatever was going to happen, too. Snotlout didn't seem convinced, though.

"Why! Why is this so important! Why do you have this insane drive to get yourself KILLED!" Snotlout just didn't understand this girl. Not like the others anyway. Well, those were difficult too, but Tiny was just something else! Ruffnut and Astrid were crazy, sure, but they were big enough and strong enough to be just the amount of crazy that they were. They didn't go around punching Gronkles or chasing after Nightfuries! And she was so small! Why had the Gods created a person with so much spunk, and put her in such a small body? It didn't seem fair, to him or her.

Tiny turned and ran back up a few steps, before addressing Snotlout again.

"Listen. I'm going. You don't have to. I understand that it's scary. But you need to know that everything you don't understand isn't bad." And with that, she continued up the stairs.

By the time Tiny had returned, Viking were swarming the disheveled arena. One was putting the Nightmare away, a few were manning the gates and doors. But most were piled on top of Toothless, holding him down. Hiccup and Stoick were having a shouting match, but other than the fact that Hiccup looked incredibly angry, he was fine. 'Well, what did you expect?' She asked herself. 'He trained a NIGHTFURY for Odin's sake! He wasn't going to be done in by a Nightmare.'

"It wasn't the Nightmare I was worried about," She whispered out loud. No, the biggest threat to the skinny boy was standing right in front of him, eyes ablaze and Beard frizzed out from stress. "It's Stoick."


	12. Chapter 12: Shipping Off

**Yes! Finally we get t the good part! I've been waiting for this chapter since chapter nine!**

**And my terrible 'make Snotlout out of character' spree is over too! So expect there to be a few rough transitions, sorry!**

**Chapter Twelve**

Tiny knew it was wrong to eavesdrop…but that didn't keep her from doing it. She'd known disobeying her parents was wrong, but she'd done that plenty of times this past month, too. In fact, Tiny had been breaking all sorts of rules lately, but regardless, she crept up to the door of the great hall, which stood partially open, and leaned in to try and see inside. Her view of Hiccup was skewed by Stoick's massive figure, but she could hear them, loud and clear.

"This is what you'd been doin'" Stoick said gravly, as if he couldn't believe it. "Ya haven't been fightin' dragons, you've been TRAININ' them!"

"Dad, it's not what you think! They aren't bad, their just protecting themselves!" Hiccup pleaded. "They HAVE to steal food from us, or else they get eaten themselves! There's something out there, something bigger than any of them!" Tiny tried to crane her neck to look past Stoick, but he was just too big! Though, Tiny did pick up the slight hunch of Stoick's shoulders; what Hiccup had just said obviously meant something to him.

"What?" Stoick said, not moving apart from the slight twitch in his neck.

"There's this…queen dragon, Dad! It's on their Island! And it-"

"WHAT!" Stoick repeated, but Tiny wasn't exactly worried about the growing volume of the chief; just as Hiccup had revealed his key-point of information, a hand had slapped down on Tiny's shoulder and dragged her backwards. She looked up to see the slightly distressed but mostly angry face of Astrid.

"That's a nasty habit, you've got!" The blond girl said as soon as they were far enough away from the hall that is was sure they wouldn't be heard. "You always seem to be everywhere, you know. And it's not like I don't see you; you were there last night, weren't you?" Tiny fiddled with the end of the braid hanging down on the right side of her face. Astrid's voice was still just as angry as ever, but there was a disturbing undertone to it. It sounded a bit…hysterical. Crazy, even, or scared.

"I'm a lot of places. I couldn't tell you where I was at any given point." She replied slowly, not looking at Astrid's face. "When you're this small, it's easy to sneak around, and necessary since no one will tell you anything." Tiny laced her words with a bit of chelance, egging Astrid on. It was silent for a moment, and then Astrid sighed.

"Well, it's not like you don't already know it. Hiccup's trained that dragon…Toothless." She started, holding her head in her hand. "But everything's just gone wrong, and well…you saw the direction THAT conversation was going in." She gestured to the great hall, where shouting could be heard.

"DAD! For once in your life, won't you just listen to me!" Astrid cringed as Hiccup's words rang around the small clearing just outside. Tiny looked between the hall and Astrid a few times.

"You hated Hiccup." Tiny said. "You hated him almost as much as you hated me. Why do you even care?" To this, Astrid didn't answer right away. It actually looked like she was about to cry, though Tiny knew the day THAT happened would be the day the Gods came down to Earth to dance with her. In fact, Astrid didn't answer until Stoick burst out of the hall, slamming the door behind him. Both girls were startled and jumped behind the nearest thing to them, which happened to be a bush, on instinct. Stoick staggered past them , looking pale and miserable.

"I didn't hate him." Astrid said. "I never did. And, I didn't hate you. It's just…" Oh how Tiny was eager to hear this one! Not hate her, huh? Well, that was news to her! "It was just so easy to…you know…say all those things. But now, I just…I know what's right now. I know what has to be said and done."

Tiny was a lot of things. She was smart, clever (to an extent), she thought she was pretty nice, and most of all, she TRIED to give people a chance, because she wanted to be given a chance herself. But as we've seen from the way she had treated Snotlout, sometimes that was not always easy. And it certainly wasn't easy now. Snotlout, well, Tiny knew his IQ was low. There was a good chance he actually hadn't realized how much pain he'd put Tiny through, he was just that dense. But Astrid was a different story. Astrid was VERY smart, and had always been well aware, Tiny was sure, of how she'd treated the small girl. That was why it was hard to believe Astrid's words; Tiny didn't know if they were true or not.

Astrid seemed to pick up on Tiny's disbelief, and gave her a look that both pleaded and pitied Tiny. This didn't exactly help her.

"Thauktin, I really am changed! I mean, just look at me! I'm speaking to you, aren't I?" As soon as those words left her mouth, though, Tiny's face fell into a scowl and she abruptly stood up. "Wait, wait! That didn't come out right!" Astrid jumped up too, and grabbed Tiny's forearm. Tiny opened her mouth to say something terrible and hurtful back, but was cut off by the sound of boots crunching through the dying grass. The girls hopped back behind their bush again as Hiccup trudged out of the hall, his head hanging and his fists clenched at his sides. Tiny knew his meeting with his father had gone badly. As she was wondering what in Thor's name would happen next, Astrid shook her upper arm.

"What?"

"Thauktin. You and I both know what Hiccup was saying was true. There IS something bigger and badder out there." Tiny nodded. "And right now, Stoick is organizing a fleet of ships to go and find the nest. This isn't good, and we…we have to do something."

Tiny was at crossroads here. On one hand, she could completely ignore Astrid's plea for help. This would be immediately gratifying; Tiny still didn't like the girl, even with her sudden change of demeanor. But…she did actually think Hiccup was right. She didn't know what was out there, or what Astrid was talking about, but she knew they were telling the truth. Hiccup wouldn't lie; not like this. And then there was the second choice: help Astrid in whatever she was trying to do, at the cost of her own pride. It would be a giant step to lend a hand to her worst Nightmare, and at the same time, it was really the right thing to do, and it would make her life easier in the end. She might actually get the others to like her!

Tiny frowned. Wait, hadn't Baggie said something like that? The easier path not actually being the easier path? No, did she really predict this would happen? But, how could she? No, Tiny knew what she had to do, but she couldn't accept that Baggie could see the future.

"Thauktin?" Astrid said, standing and extending a hand to help Tiny up. Well, she didn't like it, but she had to do it. So she accepted Astrid's help, and in turn, lent her some of hers.

"But what can we do?" Tiny said, straightening up.

"I'll go talk to Hiccup. He's probably stewing some ingenious plan right now. But I want you to round up the others. Whatever's going to happen, we're going to need their help. And if they give you any trouble," she smirked and punched Tiny in the shoulder. "Give 'em that, and tell them it's from me!"

**(page break)**

For the second time that day, Tiny stood on Snotlout's doorstep. His Mother, Amarna, was bumping around inside, 'looking' for her son. Tiny knew he was in there, and she also knew he needed to stop being such a chicken. She'd already sent Fishlegs don to the arena, but she didn't want to tackle the twins alone, and since they already sort of tolerated Snotlout, it'd be better if he was with her.

"Oh dear," Amarna came back to the door with a sympathetic smile and a shrug. "He doesn't want to come out right now." Tiny wrinkled her nose at this, and started to think up ways she's drag him out through the window. He was far too heavy for her to do it alone though; she was thinking of going to get Fishlegs back to help her, when Amarna cleared her throat to get her attention. "Maybe, you could go talk to him?" She suggested, winking and stepping aside to clear the doorway. Tiny almost said no; the thought of entering Snotlout's house repulsed her slightly, but then decided that it would be rude to say that, her being nice now and everything, so she reluctantly stepped through the doorway. The house was actually pretty small, and, not at all like Tiny imagined it would look like. Her own house was plain and simple, but spacious. Neither her Mother nor Father liked clutter, but Amarna and Spitelout seemed like the type of people who thrived in it. Not to say the house was messy; just that, there was so much stuff in the front room alone! They had crammed a table, three chairs, a rack with various helmets and a matching rack with various weapons, all in the space Hermilda would only allow a single table! Their house was only one story, though, and that might have explained the crowded accommodations.

Despite the tight fit, it was actually kind of cozy in Snotlout's house. It was bright, even though there was only one window, and smelled a little bit like cooked chicken. Tiny was careful not to step on or trip over anything, but was shocked to find that there was a large hound-dog sprawled out across the floor in her path!

"Oh, don't mind him!" Amarna trilled, nudging the dog awake with her foot. "Spitty, you git, you old bag-of-bones!" The dog, Spitty, just burped and didn't move. Unfortunately, she couldn't help but be reminded of the owner.

Tiny followed Amarna through her maze of belongings and to a set of identical doors at the back of the house. One had a giant 'KEEP OUT' scratched into the wood, and she guessed that this was Snotlout's room. His mother nodded to her, but Tiny was still a bit wary of going in. There really was no telling what was in there; from what she'd learned about the boy in the past month, it could be anything!

One thing about Amarna that reminded Tiny of Snotlout was her willingness to push and shove Tiny when she wanted her to go forward. She didn't love the fact that Snotlout just dragged her around Berk like a ragdoll, and she hoped this habit wouldn't develop with his mother.

"Go in, Thauktin! He won't bite! But, if he does, you just tell me and I'll-"

"No, no, it's okay. Thanks for showing me in, Mrs. Jorgenson." Tiny gave her a weak smile.

"Please, call me Amarna! Mrs. Jorgenson is my mother-in-law!" And with that she flitted off to what Tiny had found her doing when she'd first arrived (Trying to wrench a windowpane back into place). 'Well, open the door.' Tiny's inner self commanded. 'He's in there, I'm sure.'

'Yes,' she argued back, 'but I don't want to just barge right in! What if he's-'

'We are NOT going there!' It was actually really silly to be arguing with herself, but, she'd been doing this for a long time now; she was her only friend. 'He's probably skulking, or whatever. Besides, he barged in on you yesterday!' So, despite what her inner self said, Tiny knocked on Snotlout's door.

"I'm not coming out! I don't care if Tiny's at the door!" Snotlout shouted from inside. She could practically see his scowling face from the tone of voice he was taking. Amarna must be a patient woman.

"What happened to calling me Thauktin?" Tiny called. She hadn't meant to sound so somber, but as soon as she'd spoken, Snotlout let out an audible gasp, and after a few crashing noises and a loud THUMP, he stuck his head out of his room.

"Tiny! Er, uh, Thauktin, what are you…did my Mom let you in!" He stammered. Tiny's eyes travelled over his head and tried to see inside. And, as usual, she wasn't tall enough to see over the person in her way. Jeez, first it was Stoick, now Snotlout? She really needed to get some stilts or something!

"Yes, she did. Why didn't you come out to the door?"

"I didn't feel like it." Snotlout narrowed his eyes at her. "Why're you here?"

"Astrid sent me," she replied, and was disappointed at the look of hope that flashed through Snotlout's eyes. He obviously hadn't given up on his stupid infatuation with the blond-wad. "She wants me to get everyone over to the arena. She and Hiccup have some sort of plan."

"Plan?" Snotlout stepped out from his room, shutting the door right behind him, denying Tiny of any look inside. "Plan for what?"

Tiny exhaled. "You can't be so stupid as to think Stoick's in his right mind, chasing the nest in such bad weather, even after Hiccup warned him not to?"

"Well, Hiccup's just a kid. He WAS talking about some sort of queen-dragon or something earlier today, but…"

"Yes!" Tiny looked over her shoulder to make sure Amarna wasn't listening, and she lowered her voice. "Hiccup thinks there's some sort of queen-dragon at the nest, and Stoick won't listen! Hiccup wants to go and stop them, but he needs our help!" Snotlout's face crumpled a bit, his eyes glazing.

"But what could we possible do? They've got all the ships, and…we're only kids!" Tiny knew he'd play that card, and she'd come prepared.

"But we're not just kids, Snotlout. We've got one thing Stoick doesn't have!"

"What's that?"

"Just follow me, you big oaf!" Tiny smacked him on the head, spinning his helmet around. "And stop asking stupid questions!"

**(Page Break)**

Tuffnut and Ruffnut followed closely behind Snotlout, who kept pace next to Tiny. They all entered the arena just in time to see Hiccup racing over to the giant wooden doors that kept the myriad of training dragons contained. Astrid and Fishlegs were already there, standing towards the middle of the space.

"Hey, Hiccup!" Snotlout called, and the redhead spun around. That crooked grin Snotlout often donned crept up and he smirked. "Great plan! Count me in." This caused Hiccup to stop dead in his tracks and turn towards them. Tiny smiled sheepishly at him, and both the twins walked right up to him.

"You were wise to seek the help of the world most deadly weapon," Tuffnut said, puffing out his chest importantly. Hiccup raised an eyebrow, and after a moment of silence, Tuffnut frowned and his chest deflated. "That would be me," he continued. Ruffnut shoved past her brother and pushed her face right up next to Hiccup's.

"You're crazy," she sneered, but didn't stop smiling. "I like that." Besides looking a little revolted, Hiccup looked rather grateful for the support. He beamed at everybody, until Astrid broke the triumphant silence.

"So, what is the plan?" She asked, putting her hands on her hips. Hiccup didn't waste any time in unbolting the gate of the Nightmare. All eyes were on him as he led the previously ferocious beast out of its compartment with just his hand. Astrid didn't seem all that fazed by its sudden appearance, but Fishlegs almost fainted, and Ruffnut skittered backwards and shoved her brother in front of her. Tiny was just curious as to what Hiccup expected them all to do with the Nightmare. Not…ride it? Snotlout stooped to pick up a nearby dagger, but dropped it instantly when Astrid jabbed him in the side with her elbow. "Don't" she mouthed.

"We're going to ride them!" he announced, and Tiny almost fell over. Great. Now, it wasn't going to rain money……rats! She thought she had something going here! Hiccup led the dragon, who looked wary of the other kids but not hostile, over to where Snotlout was standing. The poor boy looked pale as a new-born baby and was shivering like a sheared lamb.

"Hey, what are you doing?" he stammered as Hiccup grabbed his hand and placed it on the Nightmare's nose. He flinched, and so did the dragon, but neither did much more. It seemed as though both parties were equally scared of one another. And after a few moments of panic, Snotlout calmed a bit, and smiled again. "Hey, look! I'm doing it! I'm-"but as soon as Hiccup walked away, Snotlout's confidence faded. "Where are you going?" he asked. Hiccup went over to the edge of the arena and picked up a coil of rope. He tossed it to Snotlout and called "You'll need something to hang on to with!"

Tiny's helmet was almost blown off her head by the force of the exhale the Nader standing right behind her took. Spinning around, she came nose-to-beak with the creature, and almost fainted. Everyone else was staring in wonder at the dragons, who seemed so at ease, even when faced with the Vikings who had, not a week ago, tried to kill them in training. Tiny was equally awed at the ease the other Vikings took under the same circumstances.

"C'mon, guys. We don't have much time!" Astrid shouted, throwing a rope over the neck of the Nader and hopping onto its back. The dragon screeched and flapped its wings a few times. Tuffnut and Ruffnut were climbing their way up the Zippleback's duel necks, and Fishlegs was being thoroughly sniffed over by the Gronkle.

"Thauktin," Snotlout called. Tiny looked up and saw that Snotlout was already atop the Nightmare, who had smoke billowing out of its nostrils. "C'mon. You don't want to be left behind, do you?"


	13. Chapter 13: Queen Bee in her Hive

**ACTION TIME! This chapter's a long one, so brace yourselves! Yay! R and R plz and thnx!**

**Chapter Thirteen**

Tiny desperately wanted to scream, but knew she'd probably blow out Snotlout's eardrums if she did. Riding a Monstrous Nightmare towards an island practically no one had ever been to before was not her idea of a perfect Thursday night, and yet here she was. Snotlout's steering didn't do anything to calm her nerves, either; the Dragon kept lurching to the left and right, almost throwing Tiny off its back each time it swerved. It was like riding on a boat, only more terrifying and scaly.

"We're almost there!" Hiccup shouted over his shoulder at the head of the formation. He and Astrid were riding the Nader, who didn't look at all happy to be carrying both the Vikings. Tiny guessed that it just wasn't used to being told where to go. But then again, it must have been locked up as a training dragon for so long, you would think it'd just be happy to be out of the arena. To the right of the Nader was the Gronkle, who was carrying Fishlegs, a very green, sea-sick looking Fishlegs. On the other side was the Zippleback, and the twins, who were fighting (as usual) and trying to kick the other from their perches on their own neck of the two-headed dragon. Snotlout and Tiny were riding the Nightmare, and were flying above the rest of the dragons, mostly, Tiny thought, because Snotlout wanted to seem superior. The Nightmare was humongous, it's head was probably the size of Stoick's whole body, and kept billowing smoke out of its nose, obscuring Snotlout's view and causing him to keep swerving around.

"For Odin's sake, Snotlout!" Tiny yelled, her voice barely reaching the boy through the wind, "Could you TRY to steer him a little straighter!"

"What does it look like I'm trying to do?" He called back, fumbling with the rope tried around the Nightmare's neck. In front of the group of dragons loomed a gigantic wall of fog, and as Hiccup wasn't slowing down at the head of the group, Tiny knew they'd be flying straight into it. "_Great Gods, we're all going to get killed!_" she thought, swallowing hard and trying to get a good grip on the scales of the Nightmare's neck. They looked so rough, she had no idea they were this slippery!

"Don't break formation, and follow my lead!" Hiccup called again, just before he was swallowed up by the mass of fog. Both the twins let out a shout, and their Zippleback seemed to hesitate for a split-second before they too, were engulfed. Tiny watched as Fishlegs dove in after the others.

"Uh…h-hey, dragon?" Snotlout called. "Isn't there any way around this thing!" The Nightmare moved its head slightly to look up at its two riders, and Tiny could almost see the smirk on its face. But instead of roasting the Vikings, like Tiny was sure it was used to doing, it just turned back to its flying and didn't even flinch as all three of them were thrown into the abyss.

Tiny could barely even see Snotlout's helmet through the thick fog, let alone any of the others in their formation. But the Nightmare must have travelled this way before, because it knew exactly how to fly to evade the giant stone pillars and arches that jutted out of the water. Back and forth they weaved, with the distant sound of wings ahead of them, and ominous black clouds looming over them. "_It's going to be a thunder storm,_" Tiny thought, holding her helmet with one hand so it didn't fly off into the ocean like it seemed to like to do. "_Thor's not happy._" Tiny ducked her head slightly; not because she needed to, but it just made her feel safer to be curled up. When she was little and the other kids made fun of her, she'd run home and curl up in her Mother's lap, and her Mother would sing to her. Though curling up on the back of an airborne dragon was obviously not an option here, it did make her feel a little better just to be hunched up. And even if she closed her eyes, it was almost impossible to forget where she was, the Nightmare had taken a slight dive and was flying so close to the water now that the waves leapt up and sprayed her in the face on a constant basis. "_And we don't even know what we're going to find at the Dragon's nest. How in the Gods Glory are we going to fight it?"_

"Stop that!" Ruffnut shouted from ahead of them. "Get off! You're such an idiot!"

"Well, stop flying you're side of the dragon into mine! You're upsetting Grunt!" Tuffnut replied, equally as loud.

"Grunt? You named it? What a weird name."

"Yours is weirder!"

"Shut up, both of you!" The twins were silenced as Astrid shouted back at them. "You're going to give us away!" It was quiet after that, apart from an occasional cough. The silence was almost scary, and Tiny wished then that something or someone would break it. She instantly regretted wished, though, because just then, the screech of a hundred dragons was heard, and the Nightmare, basing it's sense of sight off of sound, was blinded and smacked against a stone pillar to its right. It might have been a blessing in disguise, because where they had been flying not a second ago was instantly flooded with the bodies of countless dragons fleeing from the direction of the nest, but Tiny was too busy trying to keep hold of the Nightmare's scales to care. Her hands kept slipping as the dragon tried to regain its balance and launch back into the sky, but it couldn't seem to get a good foot-hold on the slick rock.

"UP UP! GO UP!" Snotlout shouted, pulling on the rope. The Nightmare merely grunted in response and jumped clumsily back into the air. Of course it splashed down into the water a few times, completely soaking both Vikings, and causing Snotlout to shout some very inappropriate words in response to the unwanted but much-needed bath. But the dragon finally pulled up, and they were back into formation within seconds. They even flew close enough to see the other's dragons through the fog.

It wasn't long before the mountain came into sight. Tiny didn't know what she had been expecting, neither Astrid nor Hiccup had told her anything about the Island itself, but she hadn't imagined it with a mountain. But that wasn't the only thing that greeted them. It wasn't hard to miss, the thing was gigantic, and thrown into startling focus by the light of the fires burning at the shore. That had been what Hiccup had been so afraid of; and he was rightly frightened, the thing was bigger than anything Tiny had ever laid eyes on. The Queen Dragon.

"Here we go guys! Don't lose your nerve, I've got a plan!" Hiccup looked back at his rag-tag group of dragons and riders, his face painted with determination. This was it; they would either do or die. Literally. Tiny let out a long rattling breath and grabbed the back of Snotlout's shirt, out of instinct. She just didn't want to fall off this darn- dragon and be known as Tiny, the girl who died because she fell over. If anything, she wanted to be known as Tiny, that one short Viking who is actually a pretty good fighter even though everyone underestimates her. Or maybe just Tiny the Great for short.

At the front of the group, Hiccup led the Nader into a nose-dive, swooping dangerously close to the nose of the giant dragon, trying to distract it from two Vikings on the ground below. Upon further inspection, Tiny realized it was Gobber and Stoick on the ground, looking absolutely dumbstruck by the appearance of Hiccup and the dragons. The Nightmare refused to do a dive; it was probably just as afraid of the Queen as the humans were, and, alongside the Zippleback and Gronkle, glided over the Queen's head.

"Look everyone! We're riding dragons! All of us!" Tuffnut shouted, waving to the mass of Viking warriors who had halted in their attempt to flee the Queen and stare up at the teens and their mounts. The twins looked absolutely elated at the attention; they were always such spot-light hogs. Tiny turned her gaze back to the boy driving the Nightmare, only to see him not paying attention to where this thing was flying! Tiny smacked the back of his head, making his helmet spin.

"Eyes on the sky, Snotlout!" She hissed, not wanting to be dropped from such a high altitude.

"Fishlegs, I want specs on this thing!" Hiccup called. "Find its blind spot!" Fishlegs saluted and steered the Gronkle up towards the Queen's head. "Ruff, Tuff, I want you two to tick it off; find out what this thing's shot-limit is, if it has one. Be as annoying as possible."

"Are you kidding me?" Tuffnut asked, "I'm the most annoying person in Berk! See?" He turned his dragon's head upside down and made a face at his sister, who then kicked him in said face. Astrid shot both twins a warning glance, but Hiccup almost chuckled.

"Snotlout, Tiny, go up there and make as much noise as possible! Throw off its aim! Go!" Tiny nodded at Hiccup, and Snotlout pulled on the rope.

"C'mon, dragon, work with me here!" The Nightmare was not an agile dragon, and Tiny assumed Snotlout assumed it could maneuver easier than it actually was able to. She knew the poor dragon couldn't turn on a dime, she doubted even Toothless could, but Snotlout didn't seem to understand. "We have a job to do, you know!"

Tiny smacked Snotlout in the back of the head, making his helmet spin. His hand immediately went to where he'd been struck, and glanced sideways at her.

"Ow! Watch it, will'ya? Who knew someone with such tiny arms could be so strong?" Tiny almost gave him another slap, until she realized he'd just given her a compliment. Wow, it had been a long time since she'd received a compliment. Well, since she'd received one from someone her own age. It felt…sort of good.

"Don't be so harsh with the dragon!" Tiny said, snatching the axe from Snotlout's belt and unhooking her shield from hers. "If you haven't noticed, you're not perfect either."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm as perfect as they come."

"As what come? Tree stumps? Yeah, you are a pretty perfect tree stump."

"Ha ha, very funny." The Nightmare finally made it to the Queen's head, which was so far up, Tiny felt a little light-headed. But as soon as they were in close range to its eyes, they started trying to make as much noise as they possibly could, given the circumstances. Which basically meant smacking their shield with whatever they had. Tiny was so afraid her shield was going to shatter; it wasn't made to be strong, just light! But she knew she couldn't go easy on it, the softer she hit the wood, the quieter the sound it would make. And Hiccup and Astrid needed all the advantages they could get with this thing. The Nightmare didn't make it easy, either. It wasn't breed to hover like a Gronkle, and with its constant bucking, Tiny had almost struck Snotlout in the head several times.

The Queen seemed to have one tiny eye on each side of its head, and at first, Tiny thought throwing off its aim was going to be easy! But she realized she was seriously mistaken when not one, not two, but three eyes opened. That meant six eyes all together!

"This thing doesn't have a blind spot!" Fishlegs called from the other side of the head. She realized just a split-second too late that while making noise wouldn't confuse the Queen, it WAS confusing the Nightmare and the other dragons. With one huge lurch, the great crimson dragon threw Snotlout off its neck and onto the brow on the Queen. Tiny was almost taken with him, but the added weight of the axe and shield kept her seated. Though, she almost wished it hadn't; the dragon started losing altitude fast, it was plummeting towards the ground! Tiny let out a blood-curling screech as the rocky beach loomed closer, and realized what she'd have to do.

She'd never steered a dragon before. This was the first time she'd ever been this close to one, how would she even know HOW to steer one? But she grabbed the robes regardless and tugged up. In her frantic attempt to right the Nightmare, she caught a glimpse of Fishlegs, suffering the same fate on his Gronkle. But the Gronkle's ability to hover was working to his advantage, and their decent was much slower than Tiny's. The Nightmare's eyes met Tiny's as it twisted it's head to look at her, and not ten feet before they were to meet the ground, it unfolded it's wings to buffer the impact; and they hit the ground as light as a feather.

Tiny was still terrified of steering the dragon, but it launched back into the sky, and she was forced to try again. She scooted forward on the dragon's neck and held the ropes more firmly; she wasn't going to let go for anything. The Dragon snorted and let out a puff of smoke, and Tiny pulled back on the rope ever so slightly, and to her astonishment, the Nightmare turned upwards, towards the Queen's head agin. This was unbelievable; the Nightmare had followed her directions! Just to test it to make sure it was for real, she pulled the ropes to the left, and the Nightmare turned to the left! Yes, she WAS steering the Nightmare! She WAS a dragon rider! She WAS…

Totally dead. She'd been so preoccupied in the wonder of being in control of one of the most feircesome dragons in existence, she hadn't seen the huge mace-like tail swinging directly at her. The only thing that actually alerted her of the approaching danger was the terrified shriek of the Nightmare as it was struck. Back down both rider and dragon fell, this time the Nightmare too dazed to save either of them. "_I'm going to be crushed!"_ Tiny thought, still holding onto the ropes of the Nightmare, who was falling backwards and almost trapping her under its wings. "_I have to get out! I'm going to be smashed into the rocks!"_ The let go of her reins and pushed off from its back, only to find that it's velocity was too great for her to propel herself backwards and out of danger. She was pinned to its back! She was trapped, and she was going to die!

"Nightmare! Nightmare! Dragon, please wake up! Turn over! Fly! Do anything! Just flip, for Gods sakes!" She screamed, but she doubted the dragon could hear her over the howl of the wind. "_They'll find my poor pancaked body under this dragon! I'll be stuck to its scales, and they'll have to scrape me off with a spatula! What a way to go!" _NO! Tiny opened her eyes, and clawed her way up to the dragon's shoulders. She would not die here, not now! She still had so much more to prove! There was still so many things to do, so many places to explore, things to fall off of, patches of poison ivy she'd yet to discover! She would NOT die here! She gathered all her strength and dragged her body up and over its shoulders, almost re-breaking her arm, but just as the dragon hit the pebbles of the beach, Tiny had pulled herself up onto its belly, and was saved. Not to say she was without injury. She rebounded off the Nightmare's stomach and went flying. She did actually hit the rocks, but not nearly as badly as she would have. And she landed on her side, the side with the un-broken arm. She wasn't hurt, just shaken.

Completely out of breath, Tiny crawled over to the dragon and went up to its face. Its eyes were wide with terror, staring up at the sky. It's side were heaving, so she knew it wasn't dead, but just a little out of breath, like her.

"Okay, Nightmare. I know that must have hurt, but we have to get back out there! Hiccup and the others are counting on us!" She realized how crazy she would have thought anyone giving a pep talk to a dragon would be, but at the moment, she didn't care. She looked back up at the Queen, and saw Snotlout whacking away at the humongous dragon's eyes. "Please Nightmare? Just a little longer! I promise, this will be over soon!" The Nightmare's eyes finally moved, and it's huge pupils zeroed in on her. Any other day, Tiny would have run in fear of being hunted by this dragon, but today, she knew she was safe. From the Nightmare. Slowly, it rose to its feet, giving itself a quick shake. "Atta 'boy!" Tiny called, but instantly regretted. The Nightmare roared and swiped its tail at her. "Oh, oh, sorry! Atta 'Girl! Sorry!"

**(Page Break)**

Tiny now steered the Nightmare with confidence, dodging the Queen's attacks effortlessly.

"You the Viking!" Astrid popped out of nowhere on the Nader, without Hiccup, and called to Snotlout, who seemed to be having success in distracting the dragon by hurting its eyes. Tiny momentarily thought about how rude it way, popping out of nowhere like that, throwing off the momentum she and the Nightmare had, but then remembered she was trying to be nice these days. Snotlout donned his goofy smile at Astrid's praise, but got in his moment of distraction, the Queen threw her head back, dislodging the boy from his perch above its eye and making him lose his hammer. It plummeted to the ground, and Snotlout's serious lack of balance threatened to do the same to him. He was teetering back and forth over a ridge of coral-like spiked protruding from the Queen's head. Tiny urged the Nightmare to swoop down and save him, but the Queen had now turned its attention to her.

It's roar was so deafening, especially up close, it made Tiny wish she'd been crushed and was on her way to Valhalla. It was short-lived though, and she swooped down under its chin to avoid the sonic bloom of its voice. Big mistake. Using it's right leg, the Queen shoved the Nightmare right out of the sky, and this time there was no long, peaceful decent. The dragon was rocketed to the ground, giving Tiny no chance to reposition herself for an easier landing.

What happened next, Tiny has never remembered, but despite her lapse in memory, what happened, happened. The Nightmare hit the ground and slid for several hundred feet, all the way to the water's edge. Tiny was going in and out of consciousness, and when she was able to regain it, her head was spinning so violently, she couldn't think straight, but there was one thing that always busted through her dizziness; the pain. Something on her shoulder was hurting. Something BIG on her shoulder was hurting. And….why weren't her legs touching the ground? Where was she? Where was the Nightmare? These were the first things Tiny thought consciously after the crash.

She opened her eyes, expecting the Queen dragon to still be stomping around the black-pebbled beach, but to her surprise, the gargantuan dragon was nowhere to be seen. "_Where is-OOWWCH!"_ Tiny tried to rub her aching head with her hand, but found it painful to even twitch her left arm. It was then that she looked down at her wound and figured out why her legs weren't touching the ground. A hole had been gouged out of her right shoulder above her armpit, and through the hole was the larger of the Nightmare's two horns. She was dangling from her wound, skewered by the Nightmare, and every time she moved to try to get a better look at it, she was rocked by pain.

"Ooohhhhh…" She moaned, not knowing what to do. The pain in her shoulder was blinding, but mercifully, nothing else seemed to be injured all that bad. She was sore as all git-out, and her head hurt, but no broken bones thankfully. Just…this. She raised her left hand to touch the horn, which aroused the attention of the Nightmare. It didn't move its head, it probably knew that if it did, Tiny would slide down further onto the horn; but instead made a low woofing sound, a little like a dog bark. It's eyes were wide and it's nostrils were flaring, but it didn't move a muscle, apart from its tail, which was flailing wildly around. "Unnnggg…..help…." Her cry was feeble, and she doubted anyone would hear; there was no-one close enough to hear. All the Vikings, as far as she could see, where gathered around the spot where the Queen had stood, looking up at the sky. She closed her eyes and rested her head on her chest. Maybe if she just took a little nap, she would feel better. She was awfully tired, and sleeping would definantly take her mind off the pain. Yes, just a little nap…

"THAUKTIN!" The shrill yelp of a woman startled her back into wakefulness, unfortunately, and caused the horn to dig a bit deeper into her skin. There was no getting around it, Tiny needed to get off this horn, NOW. Trying to ignore the pain it caused her shoulder, she held onto the ivory with both hands and pushed up, and trying to heave herself off, but her arms just couldn't do it. It actually made the pain worse!

"THAUKTIN! What, by Gods, happened to you!" This time it was a man's voice, and much closer. Tiny didn't have the strength to lift her head, but even before she saw the boots she'd sewn herself for him, she knew it was her father. Which meant the shrill yelp had come from her Mother. Funny, she couldn't put names to the faces she vaguely remembered. Herm-Something. Or, maybe it started with an F…

"Oh, my poor baby! Freid, do something!" That was it! The man was Freid! And the woman, her mother, was named…Hermilda! That's right!

"I…I don't want to hurt her!" Freid said. Tiny perked up a bit. They were going to get her down! The pain wouldn't last much longer!

"Uuuugggh…" She managed to gasp, and lifted her hand slightly. Immediately her Mother took her hand and squeezed it.

"Oh, Thauktin! Look at you! I knew it! I knew it! I told you you'd get yourself killed!" Hermilda wailed. Tiny tried to remember how to smile.

"I'm ….not dead…yet…" she wheezed, squeezing her Mother's hand back. Freid harrumphed and walked up next to her.

"Stand back, Hermy. This might pinch a bit, Thauktin." Tiny felt her Father grab her arms, and, after a moment's hesitation, lifted her up, pulling her off the Nightmare's horn and set her on the ground. Tiny had thought that getting down from her perch would have made the pain subside, but as usual she was wrong. The pain almost doubled, and she immediately felt her shirt soak through with blood. She was vaguely aware of some great ruckus over where the other Vikings were, and knew when the Nightmare jumped up and flew over that something big had happened, but she couldn't have cared less. Just then, all Tiny wanted to do was fall asleep. Her Mother wouldn't have that though.

"Thauktin! Do you hear me, young lady! I will personally see to it that you never ever leave the house again if you close those eyes! Listen to me Thauktin! Keep your eyes open!" Tiny tried, but it was so hard! Just the itty bitty act of lifting her eyelids completely exhausted her.

Even so, her eyes flew right open at the thunderous CRASH that sounded behind her. With all her strength, tipped her head back just in time to see the tired and torn body of the Dragon Queen fall to the ground in a fiery explosion. Everyone standing there took a giant leap back. She tried to focus and understand what was going on, but her Mother kept shifting her from hand to hand. What was she doing? Tiny looked back to see her Mother wrapping a dingy bandage around her shoulder-hole. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch! Why was she wrapping it so tightly?

"HICCUP!"

"WHERE"S HICCUP!"

"NIGHTFURY!"

"HICCUP"S FALING!" Tiny's ears were assaulted by screams and shouts from the crowd, all pointing to a small-ish falling object, destined to land right in the heart of the flames on the beach. The unmistakable shape of Toothless was diving right after it. Hiccup was falling? Why? What was going on?

"What…happened?" Tiny asked, hoping her Mother would actually tell her the truth for once. Hermilda turned white, but said nothing. Freid leaned in over Hermilda's shoulder and whispered:

"Hiccup and the Nightfury led the dragon into the sky. Apparently, they blew it up." Tiny couldn't quite understand what her Father was saying, but just nodded. When was this day going to be over?


	14. Chapter 14: Is it Finally Over?

**We're almost to the end! And if you're wondering why Tiny didn't die last chapter, don't worry, it's logical! It was just a flesh-wound, and it was only on her shoulder!**

**Chapter Fourteen**

From what Tiny could gather with her groggy and slow-moving senses, there had been some kind of battle between Hiccup and the huge Queen dragon, and while Hiccup and Toothless had somehow caused the Queen to explode, Hiccup had fallen into the explosion because….well, that was about it. Tiny didn't know why Hiccup had fallen off Toothless, but she was too tired to care at the moment. Her parents, dunderheads as they were, had left her farther down the beach by herself to go see what the commotion was. Tiny hated being left behind. But the bleeding had stopped (for the most part) and now she was just alone with her thoughts. And the pain.

It barely even registered in her mind that something was casting a huge shadow over her. She looked down at her feet and saw that everything around her was dark, but didn't put two and two together until the Nightmare snorted a ring of smoke down around her.

"Go away!" She wheezed at the Nightmare, tilting her head back to glare at it. Ops, mistake! Getting stabbed in the shoulder by a dragon horn was not only painful, but completely disabilitating! She could barely move anything without the wound being jostled or moved or pinched. She hated this. She hated that she'd come here. She just wanted to go home!

And those other Vikings now had the audacity to cheer! What morons! Didn't they knew Tiny was in pain? Didn't they want to know how she was doing? No, of course, they never did. She silently cursed them all to a long existence in Hell. The Nightmare let out a coo and prodded the side of her head with it's snout.

"I said go away!" she repeated, wishing she had use of her arms. She'd loved to have smacked it's muzzle away, but her arms were pretty much useless at the moment.

"Guys, wait, I have to get my Nightmare!" Who said that? Why was his voice so familiar? Tiny wracked her brain for a few moments, trying to put a name and face to the voice. Tuffnut? No, no, Tuffnut sounded more naisly. Hiccup? Wasn't he dead by now? She decided she'd wait till the mystery voice spoke again to try and figure out who it was. "There you are! C'mon everyone's leaving! What are you waiting-" And then there was silence, apart from the crunch of pebbled underfoot. "Tiny?" he said again, in a smaller voice. That was it! It was Snotlout! She remembered him! Bad-guy turned good.

"What?" She gasped irritably. Finally someone had noticed her! It was about time! Now maybe she could get off this wretched Island and go home!

"What happened to you?" Snotlout asked, and Tiny saw, as she squinted her eyes open, that he was kneeling beside her.

"What do you think happened? I was stabbed by your stupid Nightmare!" She snapped, and the dragon recoiled a bit. She wanted to scream at him to get her home.

"I-I….didn't even notice! Why didn't you scream or anything?" Tiny stayed silent, because she couldn't remember if she had screamed or not. She couldn't remember anything from the initial kick from the Queen, to when she woke up, dangling off the ground. Ouch. Just thinking about it made her wound hurt more. Tiny was just about to open her mouth to speak again, but the sudden crunch and scrabble of pebbles told her Snotlout was running away. What a wuss.

**(Page Break)**

Tiny sat up in her bed, tired from doing nothing all day. She seriously needed some change of scenery. It was already a week since the battle with the Queen, and even one-legged Hiccup had been allowed outside by now. Hermilda, though, insisted that Tiny stay inside until she was fully healed. She didn't like it, but it was probably for the better. The whole ride home from the island had been completely humiliating, and she didn't think facing the others at the moment would be very fun. Slung over her Father's shoulder like a piece of meat, dangling there, completely useless. Ug! She covered her eyes; she didn't want to think about it.

But despite the humiliation, she desperately wanted to get out of the house! No one had come to see her, besides her parents, and she was being driven mad! She'd already read all the books in her room twice through, already re-organized her furniture, already polished her helmet and boots; what else was there to do? So, throwing on a clean shirt and boots, she decided it was time to sneak out again.

If there was only one true thing Tiny was sure of, it was that shimmying down a tree with a damaged shoulder was no easy task! The wound was almost healed, and it was bandaged up, but Tiny feared she'd never get her full range of motion back, and that was certainly the case this time. Her right arm was barely able to leave her side, and Springtime always left trees full of sap. So it was only a matter of time before Tiny slipped on a patch of sap and fell the two storied to the ground.

It was pretty weird, but when Tiny hit the ground, she didn't feel much. Just a bump. She guessed it was because she landed on her bad arm, which was still partially numb. Well, her NEW bad arm. Technically, since one was still healing from the previous break and one couldn't move much, they were both bad arms. She robbed herself up on her good elbow and looked up, only to see the faces of Tuffnut, Ruffnut, Snotlout and Astrid.

"Whoa, that was some fall!" Ruffnut said, holding out her hand for Tiny to take. She looked at the blond girl's hand wearily, not knowing if it was covered in nettles, like the last time she had pretended to care. Ruffnut just rolled her eyes and grabbed Tiny's hand, yanking her up. "I don't bite."

"Anymore." Astrid added, hitting Ruffnut in the ribs with her elbow. She smiled at Tiny, who, not knowing what this was all about, accidentally smiled back. "Y'know, we WERE going to climb up to get you. There really wasn't a need to do all that falling." Tiny just shrugged, to which Snotlout laughed.

"Hey, Fireworm says she's sorry," he said, poking Tiny in the shoulder. Ouch. "For that."

"I can't believe you named her Fireworm!" Tuffnut said, smirking. He turned to his twin. "And you said Grunt was a stupid name!"

"It is! What self-respecting dragon wants to be named Grunt? Warble laughs at him behind you guy's backs." She replied, crossing her arms.

"Warble? Holy cow, you guys pick the dumbest names!" Tiny didn't really know what they were all talking about, but she watched with interest, none the less. She was actually pretty amused! She never realized how…normal these two really were till now. Astrid must have noticed, and shoved Tiny a little.

"C'mon, guys, let's go get Hiccup. Tiny, we still have to get you a dragon!" She slugged the twins, two, who snapped to attention at the mention of finding a dragon.

"I think she should have a Thunderdrum." Ruffnut said, obviously trying to sound smart. "It's really small, but it's super noisy, just like Tiny!" Tiny didn't know how she felt about being called noisy, but hey! Anything was better than being called weak or useless.

"No, if we're talking small dragons, she should definantly get a Terror. Those things are fierce!" Tuffnut said. They started walking away from Tiny's house, and, not knowing exactly what to do, she just followed.

"You only think their fierce 'cuz you couldn't even handle a single one!" Snotlout said. He turned back to Tiny and smiled. Tiny found herself smiling back. Today was going to be a good day.

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**Epilogue**

I know what you're probably thinking, and let me just get this out of the way: No, the relationship between Snotlout and I never got past friendship. And I acknowledge that I MAY have had a teeny tiny crush on that big oaf for a short period of time, but after spending some actual time with the boy, I found that he was the biggest flirt in Berk. And, I just couldn't see myself with that kind of guy. Plus, staring at his face for long amounts of time tended to make me want to puke, so what would spending the rest of my life do to me? No, friends was just fine with me.

And I would love to tell you that I had many adventures in my life, traveling to new and exotic places with my newfound friends to reclaim an ancient jewel, or rescue Berk from yet another threat, but, that would be a lie. There were a few periods of time when I was older where it seemed like the safety of the village was in question, but to be honest, I was never the same Viking after the Battle with the Queen dragon. My right arm never regained its previous abilities, and was basically useless from the elbow up. The bottom half of my arm was just fine, but my shoulder wasn't able to move at all. So even when an invasion of Berserkers hit Berk twelve years later, I wasn't able to help much.

Although, I did eventually find myself a dragon. I was about seventeen, and I was hiking up towards the lake, I saw this tiny gray and red dragonling. It was about the size of my head, and it had an obviously injured leg. At the time, I had no idea what specie it was, but after consulting the Dragon Manuel, I found a slightly smudged page documenting it' species. It was Spangled Frill-Face, and while the young dragon didn't let me come near it at first, I visited it every day and brought it food, and after a few weeks, I was walking home and found it limping after me.

I named the dragon Skits, after it's skittish behavior, and soon found that it wasn't a small dragon breed as the book told us. No, in a year, Skits had tripled in size and no longer fit in my house!

One thing I can say is true is that Astrid and I had a pretty close friendship after the Battle. It was so weird, one day, we were mortal enemies, and the next…we were best friends! It seemed to me that Astrid became a lot nicer after she and Hiccup started seeing each other; maybe some of his mannerism rubbed off on her. I don't know.

And now I'm an old woman, the oldest in Berk by a long shot! I married when I was young, but I can't even remember my late husband's name by now. He had blonde hair, and I was always telling him to keep it out of his face, I do know that! Skits is still with me, but he's slowing down, too. Can't fly straight anymore and sleeps most of the day, but I do too, so it's okay. Berk is quieter, and all of my friends have past. My only son was killed last year, but he was old. My grandchildren are getting ready to have children of their own! I will never say I lived a bad life. It may have started out rocky, but in the end, I'm thankful for mu experiences.

**THE END**


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